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1898 


'  he  Message 

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torlds  Religions 


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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE  MESSAGE 

OF  THE 

WORLD'S   RELIGIONS 


THE  MESSAGE 


OF  THE 


WORLD'S   RELIGIONS 


NEW   YORK 

LONGMANS,   GREEN,   AND   CO, 

LONDON   AND   BOMBAY 
1898 


Copyright,  1897,  by 
THE   OUTLOOK  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1898,  by 
LONGMANS,  GREEN,  AND  CO. 


All  rights  reserved 


Press  of  J.  J.  Little  &  Co. 
Astor  Place,  New  York 


4 

CONTENTS 



JUDAISM x 

By  Rabbi  Gustav  Gottheil,  D.D. 

BUDDHISM 23 

By  Professor  T.  W.  Rhys  Davids,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

CONFUCIANISM 4i 

By  the  Rev.  Arthur  H.  Smith 

Author  of  "  Chinese  Characteristics" 

MOHAMMEDANISM 65 

By  the  Rev.  George  Washburn,  D.D. 

President  of  Robert  College,  Constantinople 

BRAHMANISM 36 

By  Charles  R.  Lanman 

Professor  of  Sanskrit  in  Harvard  University 

CHRISTIANITY io2 

By  Lyman  Abbott,  D.D. 


J  5363  i  8 


THE    MESSAGE    OF 
THE    WORLD'S    RELIGIONS 


JUDAISM 

By  Rabbi  Gustav  Gottheil,  D.D. 

The  perseverance  of  the  Jew  and  his 
Judaism  is  in  itself  a  mission  to  the 
world.  That  it  is  the  wonder  of  history 
is  generally  allowed;  but  why  should  a 
wonder  be  wrought,  if  not  to  teach  and 
enforce  a  lesson  ?  Goethe  looked  upon 
it  in  that  light;  for  he  wrote:  "  In  re- 
gard to  independence,  firmness,  courage 
— and  where  these  qualities  do  not  suf- 
fice, tenacity — the  people  of  Israel  is 
without  compare.     It  is  the  most  endur- 

i 


2  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

ing  race  on  earth,  which  was,  is,  or  shall 
be,    that    it    may    glorify    the    name    of 
Jehovah  forever.      It  is  for  this  reason 
that  (in  the   pictorial  representation   of 
history  which  meets   the  eye  of  the  son 
of  Meister  in  the  Octagon  hall)  we  have 
placed  Israel  as  the  great  ensample  and 
central    picture    which    the    others    sur- 
round as  a  frame  merely.'      The  wonder 
is  justified  in  our  eyes  when  we  remem- 
ber that  his  "  tenacity  "  is  the  very  sin 
which  the  Church  cannot  forgive.     She 
has  done  all  she  can,   and   much   more 
than   she   ever  ought    to    have  done,  to 
make  the  wonder  cease;  but  "  the  arm 
of  the   Lord  is   not  shortened  to  save.' 
Officially  she  has  not  changed  her  atti- 
tude toward   Israel;    she    continues    to 
place  his  mission   against  the  mission  of 
God ;  but  silently,  and  in  the  hearts  of 
her  most  thoughtful  sons  and  daughters, 
the  question  has  sprung  up,  and  is  press- 
ing for  an  answer  more  urgently  day  by 
day:   How  was  it  possible  for  these  scat- 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  3 

tered  remnants,  numerically  so  weak,  and 
that  small  number  broken  up  and  scat- 
tered to  the  four  winds,  to  "  stand  and 
to  withstand"  for  so  many  centuries? 
To  stand,  with  every  known  support  of 
a  nation  struck  away;  with  every  na- 
tional bond  rent  asunder;  without  an 
organization  of  any  kind,  without  a 
priesthood,  without  a  rallying-point  or 
outward  symbol  of  unity,  national  or 
spiritual  ?  Here  are  ten  millions  of  peo- 
ple, strewn  over  vast  areas  of  lands,  with 
whole  continents  and  oceans  between  the 
"  disjecta  membra,"  yet  owning  an  affin- 
ity that  has  never  been  found  wanting  in 
the  hour  of  need.  This  wonder  has  been 
so  exasperating  to  the  enemies  of  Israel 
that  they  invented  all  sorts  of  devilish 
plots  to  account  for  it ;  plots  that  have 
now  been  brooded  over  by  the  clumsy 
emissaries  of  Satan  for  centuries,  but 
never  were  consummated  yet.  Mean- 
while these  mysterious  men  and  women 
have  lived  their  honest  lives   and   have 


4  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

passed  away  like  other  sons  and  daughters 
of  Adam,  have  inscribed  names  on  the 
roll  of  benefactors  that  yield  to  none  in 
lustre,  and  not  a  few  of  them  have  given 
their  lives  in  the  defence  of  the  country 
which  they  called  their  own.  How 
could  a  race,  so  situated  and  condi- 
tioned, "  withstand'  the  ceaseless  and 
merciless  war  made  upon  it  for  so  long  a 
time  ?  Needs  not  that  I  open  that  reg- 
ister once  more — it  is  sufficiently  known. 
True,  their  disruption  was  their  building 
up,  wherein  we  see  the  hand  of  Provi- 
dence working  its  own  ends  irresistibly : 
fractions  only  could  be  destroyed,  or,  if 
exiled,  find  a  refuge  somewhere  on 
earth ;  the  rare  instances  in  which  breth- 
ren refused  to  open  their  doors  to  the 
fugitives  or  even  showed  selfish  coldness 
are  branded  in  Jewish  records  with  an 
indelible  mark  of  infamy.  This  was  in 
cases  of  open  war;  but  open  war  was 
not  the  hardest  test  of  Jewish  tenacity 
and  courage;  to   be  slain   not  the  worst 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  5 

of  fates;  for  the  martyr's  crown  casta 
halo  around  the  darkness  of  the  grave. 
To  live,  aye !  to  live  under  the  most 
refined  wickedness  of  persecution  was 
more  bitter  than  death — was,  did  I  say  ? 
Is,  to  this  hour.  Very  recently  one  who 
knows  what  he  is  testifying  to,  and  may 
be  fully  trusted,  said  to  me:  "  Sir,  the 
distress,  the  poverty,  the  want  to  which 
the  Jews  encaged  in  the  Russian  Pale 
have  been  reduced  is  appalling;  it  is  be- 
yond my  power  of  description  ;  and  there 
is  but  one  cry  sounding  from  all  letters 
received:  '  For  God's  sake  take  us  any- 
where you  can,  so  that  we  have  enough 
to  eat  and  to  drink.'  But  where  such 
distress  does  not  exist,  nay,  even  where 
plenty  reigns  and  the  political  rights  of 
the  Jew  are  not  questioned,  his  race  and 
his  religion  are  the  gall  and  wormwood  in 
the  cup  of  the  Jew.  Without  doubt, 
whether  we  consider  the  length  of  time, 
or  the  severity  of  the  trial,  or  the  ab- 
sence of  friend  and  comforter,  no  other 


6  THE    WORLD  'S  RELIGIONS 

faith  has  been  tried  as  has  that  of  Israel. 
Others  have  had  their  periods  of  perse- 
cution and  oppression,  but  they  were 
followed  by  triumph  and  dominion ; 
others  have  covered  the  pages  of  history 
with  martyrs  and  professors  who  proved 
invincible  under  their  tortures,  and  who 
went  to  the  stake  singing  psalms  and 
giving  praise  to  God  that  they  were 
found  worthy  to  seal  the  truth  with  their 
blood ;  who  better  than  the  Jew  can 
honor  their  memory  ?  But,  with  the 
exception  of  two  or  three  interruptions, 
the  way  of  the  Jew  has  been  a  "  Via 
Dolorosa '  from  the  thirteenth  to  the 
nineteenth  century;  and,  in  the  words  of 
his  own  inimitable  elegist,  he  can  say, 
"  Behold,  is  there  a  grief  like  mine  ?  " 

All  this  would  be  wonderful,  even  if  Jew 
and  Judaism  were  now  in  their  dotage;  if 
their  energy  were  spent,  and  they  were 
listless  as  to  the  present,  aimless  as  to  the 
future;  if  Byron's  word  were  true: 
Israel  has  the  grave. 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  7 

But  the  outcry  against  the  Jew  is  that 
his  strength  is  far  in  excess  of  his  num- 
ber, that  his  ambition  reaches  to  heights 
to  which  he  is  not  entitled ;  his  successes 
are  the  despair  of  his  non-Jewish  com- 
petitors. And  as  regards  his  religion,  it 
is  safe  to  say  that  it  is,  at  the  present 
day,  the  most  active  and  energetic  in  the 
work  of  reform.  The  oldest  of  churches 
offers  the  heartiest  welcome  to  the  latest 
born  of  ideals.  Nor  is  it  a  mere  nega- 
tive reform  which  is  pursued ;  I  mean, 
one  that  is  content  with  the  lopping  of 
dead  branches  and  the  leaving  undone  of 
things  that  have  fallen  out  of  joint  with 
the  time.  Young  branches  are  being 
constantly  grafted  on  the  old  stem  which 
is  found  to  be  still  full  of  sap,  capable 
to  nourish  and  prosper  the  fresh  shoots. 
Old  liturgies  are  expurgated  and  new 
ones  composed ;  rituals  and  ceremonials 
are  being  modernized ;  new  hymns  writ- 
ten, or  borrowed  from  other  churches 
without   compunction — sometimes    even 


8  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

with  their  melodies,  if  text  and  tone  ap- 
pear to  be  made  for  each  other ;  even  new 
days  and  seasons  are  fixed  for  public  wor- 
ship. In  schools,  seminaries,  periodicals, 
religious  literature,  societies,  charities — 
everywhere  the  breath  of  a  new  life  is 
felt.  And,  more  astonishing  still,  the 
soil  of  Palestine  is  being  reclaimed  by 
the  hands  of  Jewish  peasants  and  plant- 
ers; Jerusalem  lifts  her  head  once  more 
and  begins  to  lay  aside  her  sackcloth  and 
ashes — growing  rapidly  into  a  modern 
city. 

And — here  the  superlative  of  wonder 
fails  me — next  August,  in  this  year 
eighteen  hundred  and  ninety-seven,  a 
congress  of  Jews  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  will  meet  at  Munich,  Bavaria,  to 
discuss  the  whole  of  the  Jewish  question 
and  the  most  effective  way  of  settling  it ; 
and  also  the  question  whether  the  found- 
ing of  a  Jewish  State  in  Palestine  is  pos- 
sible— if  possible,  desirable — as  a  refuge 
for   those   Jews  who   are   not   permitted 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  9 

by  the  people  among  whom  they  live  to 
assimilate  with  them  in  citizenship. 

Brief  and  summary  as  I  desire  to  make 
this  statement  of  the  case,  I  cannot  omit 
the  fact  that  Judaism  gave  birth  to  two 
giant  children,  which  cast  their  mother 
so  far  into  the  shade  as  regards  numbers, 
power,  wealth,  brilliance,  organization, 
and  recognition  in  the  world,  that  she 
can  hardly  be  mentioned  by  their  side. 
Well-nigh  half  of  mankind  live  by  a  re- 
ligious faith  Jewish  at  the  core,  yet  that 
great  outpouring  of  her  strength  has  not 
diminished  her  own  store ;  the  mother 
lives,  and  so  far  from  preparing  for  her 
final  exit,  is  girding  up  her  loins  to  do 
and  to  dare  yet  more  for  humanity.  She 
clings  to  her  post  as  one  of  the  path- 
finders for  the  arrival  of  the  Messiah, 
whose  authority  will  rest  on  the  fact 
that  there  will  be  no  questioning,  no 
wrangling  about  it,  that  all  the  earth 
will    answer    in     unison,     "  Blessed     be 


io  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

he    that    cometh    in    the    name    of    the 
Lord." 

And  now  I  have  been  asked  to  offer 
an  explanation  of  that  wonder  of  his- 
tory. I  frankly  confess  that  I  have  none 
to  offer,  neither  have  I  met  with  one 
who  could  do  it  for  me.  After  searching 
and  sounding  and  probing  and  listening 
on  all  sides,  I  still  must  bow  my  head 
before  the  Power  that  lives  and  moves  in 
this  great  mystery.  Happy  I,  if  I  may 
humbly  trace  some  of  the  means  by 
which  the  miracle  was  wrought  and  is 
being  continued.  I  do  so  with  fear  and 
trembling;  more  than  once  did  I  lay 
down  the  pen  in  the  hopeless  sense  of 
my  insufficiency;  had  I  not  feared  that 
there  was  more  cowardice  than  humility 
in  this  confession,  I  would  never  have 
pressed  the  pen  back  into  the  reluctant 
hand.  I  need  both — the  grace  of  God 
and  the  indulgence  of  the  reader;  and  I 
ask  for  them  in  all  sincerity  and  earnest- 
ness. 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  n 


I. — UNITY 

The  taproot  of  Judaism  is  the  idea  of 
unity;  the  Rabbis  understood  this  when 
they  wrote  on  Israel's  banner  the  words 
of  their  patriarch,  the  Deuteronomist, 
1  Hear,  O  Israel :  The  Lord  our  God, 
the  Lord  is  one.'  In  unity  there  is 
strength  of  both  faith  and  faithfulness. 
In  the  one  and  one  only  God  the  sim- 
plest mind  and  the  profoundest  thinker 
meet  together.  The  singer  of  the  shep-- 
herd  psalm,  that  classical  expression  of 
childlike  trust,  says  in  song  what  Bruno 
and  Spinoza  say  in  their  architectural 
systems.  There  is  something  grand  and 
soul-subduing  in  that  thought ;  and  at 
the  same  time  it  allows  a  freedom  of  con- 
struction which  keeps  the  soul  in  healthy 
activity  and  secures  a  sense  of  independ- 
ence and  self-esteem.  One  God  or 
none  at  all — the  alternative  is  bracing 
and  stimulating.      The  issue  is  not  that 


12  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

of  the  Jew,  but  of  thinking  man  all  over 
the  world,  and  has  been  so  from  the  time 
he  began  to  reflect  on  the  problem.  The 
Jew  feels  that  he  has  a  place,  indisput- 
able and  unavoidable,  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  human  mind  and  the  history 
of  religion ;  that  he  is  fully  entitled  to  it, 
and  in  holding  fast  to  it  he  defends  the 
native  right  of  humanity. 

It  has  been  said,  and  justly  so,  that  it 
is  the  enemy  that  makes  a  nation.  The 
pressure  of  defence  and  the  dread  of 
danger  are  needed  to  drive  people  to- 
gether and  to  create  a  sense  of  unity. 
Now,  by  the  proclamation  of  the  vanity 
of  all  idols  and  of  all  ideas  of  Deity 
other  than  the  one  Israel  proclaimed,  he 
provoked  the  whole  world  to  enmity; 
and  in  proportion  to  this  enormous  pres- 
sure from  all  sides  grew  his  power  of 
adhesion  and  resistance.  He  was  and  is 
right  in  allowing  no  tampering  with  his 
foundation    faith,    under   whatever   pre- 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  13 

text.  The  term  Monotheism  he  dislikes, 
because  there  lurks  danger  in  it,  as  he 
sees  clearly  in  the  Trinitarian  construc- 
tion of  that  term  in  Christianity.  His 
feet  planted  on  his  "Rock"  (God  is 
called  by  that  name  in  his  Bible),  he 
watches  with  sleepless  eye  every  attempt 
to  undermine  his  foothold. 

A  Trinitarian  belief  is  to  him  a  disin- 
tegration of  his  clear  and  compact  faith, 
and  multiplies  the  arguments  against 
God  by  three.  It  is  the  conception  of 
unity,  absolute,  everlasting,  unvarying, 
which  alone  can  give  us  a  perfect  God ; 
for  this  could  not  be  with  imperfections 
and  limitations  in  His  being.  If  such 
appear  to  our  view,  the  fault  must  lie  in 
our  vision,  not  in  Him. 

And  from  this  central  idea  a  tendency 
towards  unity  went  out  like  rays  from 
the  sun  to  pervade  all  Judaism.  One 
people,  the  sons  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob;  one  land,  with  one  capital  and 
one    sanctuary,    and     in    this    one    spot 


14  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

where  the  glory  of  God  dwelt,  visited  by 
one  man,  once  a  year,  on  the  unique 
fast-day  of  the  year;  one  book,  not  the 
Bible,  but  the  Law  of  Moses,  the  Torah, 
given  through  the  prophet  of  whom  it  is 
written,  There  never  arose  another  like 
him  in  Israel.  One  law  for  all,  the 
stranger  included,  and — no  monarchy; 
for  a  throne  with  a  human  being  on  it 
means  division,  not  unity,  as  the  very 
history  of  Israel  proves  better  than 
any  other  national  experience.  Moses, 
incomparable  fashioner  of  a  nation  and 
prince  of  legislators,  wanted  no  dynasty; 
and  those  who  followed  in  his  footsteps, 
how  true  they  remained  to  his  great 
idea!  From  Joshua  to  Samuel — these 
were  much-disturbed  times,  and  many 
saviors  of  the  nation  arose,  but  no  throne 
was  established  till  the  people  them- 
selves, in  an  evil  hour,  insisted  on  having 
one  like  other  nations — and  it  was  not 
long  before  the  breach  occurred  that 
could  never  be  healed  again. 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  15 

And  so  in  the  great  outlook  towards 
the  consummation  of  Israel's  oneness, 
the  idea  of  unity,  in  heaven  and  on 
earth,  if  I  may  say  so,  appears  triumphant 
at  last.  '  In  that  day  God  will  be  one, 
and  His  name  be  one.'  Then  God  will 
burn  the  lip  of  nations  and  purify  it  that 
they  shall  all  call  upon  the  name  of  God 
and  serve  Him  with  one  consent.  Much 
more  might  be  said  on  that  point,  but  I 
must  leave  off  here,  and  turn  to  what 
we  must  designate  as  the  second  great 
resource  of  Judaism;  and  that  is: 


II. — DIRECTNESS 

Let  the  reader  forbear  criticism  as  to 
the  name  of  this  part  of  my  statement ; 
I  chose  faute  de  mieux,  and  will  explain 
at  once  that  Judaism  places  the  soul  in 
direct,  immediate  relation  to  the  Crea- 
tor. It  offers  no  mediator,  and  hence 
has  nothing  corresponding  to  the  Chris- 
tian conception   of  "  a  Church/'      The 


1 6  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

Jew  must  be  his  own  bishop,  his  own 
pope.  His  Rabbi  is  no  priest,  and,  with 
the  exception  of  two  or  three  instances 
in  which  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  law 
is  absolutely  required,  there  is  no  reli- 
gious function  which  the  Jew  cannot  per- 
form legally  and  effectively  for  himself 
without  the  intercession  of  a  Rabbi. 
Consistently  with  this  religious  democ- 
racy, the  study  of  the  Law,  as  ex- 
pounded in  the  Talmud  and  the  Casu- 
ists, is  declared  to  be  a  universal  duty; 
nay,  one  of  the  chief  obligations  of  the 
Jew.  And  so  you  might  see,  if  you 
thought  it  worth  your  while  to  see  it,  on 
any  morning,  winter  or  summer,  hun- 
dreds of  the  "  old-fashioned  ones  "  leave 
their  homes  at  four  in  the  morning  to  go 
to  the  Beth-Hamidrash,  or  home  of  re- 
ligious study,  and  spend  the  early  hours 
of  the  day  in  that  sacred  pursuit,  before 
they  begin  their  wanderings  or  toilings 
to  earn  the  pittances  on  which  they  and 
their  families  manage  to  live. 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  17 

I  do  not  underrate  the  enormous  power 
which  the  idea  of  '  a  Church  '  as  a 
divinely  ordained  institution  is  fitted  to 
develop ;  a  thought  of  what  Catholicism 
has  achieved  is  enough  to  convince  us  of 
that.  But,  at  the  same  time,  according 
to  the  law  of  compensation  and  adjust- 
ment of  the  balance,  the  Church  must 
exact  obedience  and  submission,  and 
deprecate  self-reliance,  the  free  exercise 
of  reason.  Judaism  demands  the  latter, 
and  trusts  its  fate  to  it.  Any  ten  male 
Jews  past  the  age  of  thirteen  may  form 
a  body,  entitled  to  all  the  rights  and 
immunities  of  a  congregation,  and  per- 
form public  worship,  wherever  they  may 
be  and  at  whatever  time  they  may  desire 
it.  Every  synagogue  is  truly  a  people's 
church,  and  makes  government  not  an 
easy  matter  by  any  means.  The  Rabbi 
is  entirely  thrown  upon  his  own  resources 
as  regards  weight  and  influence  in  the 
congregation.  All  attempts  at  ecclesias- 
tical   organization    have    so    far    failed 


1 8  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

among  the  Jewish  ministry.  It  is  not 
congenial  to  the  spirit  of  Judaism;  the 
merest  approach  to  it  is  viewed  with  sus- 
picion. Whether  modern  times  and  al- 
tered conditions  and  ideas  will  work  a 
change  in  that  respect  remains  to  be 
seen.  So  far  the  grand  principle  of 
Rabbi  Chananyah  ben  Teradyon  prevails  : 
where  two  sit  together  and  interchange 
words  of  the  Law,  the  Shekinah  is  be- 
tween them ;  nay,  even  where  one  sits 
alone  and  devoutly  gives  his  mind  to  the 
study  of  the  Law,  the  Divine  Presence 
is  with  him,  and  he  receives  his  full  re- 
ward. 

III. — THIS-WORLDLINESS 

That  which  strikes  me  as  a  third  pre- 
servative element  in  the  constitution  of 
Judaism  must  seem  strange  in  the  eye  of 
the  reader,  inasmuch  as  it  is  everywhere 
considered  and  treated  as  a  reproach  and 
a  deficiency — I  mean  its  This-worldliness. 
Strange  enough  that  a  religion  which  ex- 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  19 

isted,  and  surely  not  idly,  for  a  thousand 
years  before  the  first  faint  mutterings  of 
"  another  and  a  better  world  "  are  heard 
in  its  midst,  should  grow  into  the  faith 
of  martyrdom  and  outstrip  all  others  in 
that  regard!  Yet  so  it  is;  and,  what  is 
more  surprising  still  is  that,  despite  the 
terrible  denial  which  the  Jew's  experi- 
ence gave  to  his  belief  that  God's  justice 
rewards  obedience  to  His  Law  with 
earthly  happiness  and  well-being,  he 
held  fast  to  it,  and,  as  it  were,  assisted 
God  to  make  good  His  promises  given  in 
His  Word.  Even  after  he  received  and 
approved  the  outlook  into  a  "  Here- 
after," his  faith  in  the  "  Here  "  suffered 
no  diminution.  It  sometimes  appears  to 
me  as  if  the  Jew  held  it  part  of  his 
mission  to 

strive  with  might  and  main 
For  worldly  good  and  earthly  gain 

so  as  to  vindicate  the  ways  of  his  God 
to    man ;    a    mere    fancy    of     mine,     no 


20  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

doubt,  but  fancies  are  often  only  facts 
read  in  a  peculiar  way;  and  peculiar 
ways  are  not  incongruous  with  a  peculiar 
people ! 

However  that  may  be,  the  truth  re- 
mains the  same:  Judaism  lays  all  stress 
upon  religion  as  the  wisest  plan  of 
spending  this  life  well,  and  its  kingdom 
of  heaven  meant  a  God's  kingdom  on 
earth,  visible,  tastable,  measurable,  cal- 
culable; thus  remaining  true  to  the  con- 
ception of  the  Master  of  masters — the 
son  of  Amram,  to  whom  cleanliness  was 
godliness,  and  a  healthful  body  the  holi- 
est temple  of  a  soul  created  in  the  im- 
age of  God.  I  cannot  imagine  him  as 
frowning  at  a  good  joke;  and  so  I  will 
revive  here  one  made  by  "  Kladde- 
radatsch"  (the  Berlin  "Puck")  when 
trichinae  were  first  discovered  as  revel- 
ling in  swine's  flesh;  he  said  of  Moses: 
"  Das  nenn'  ich  einen  Geheimen  Medi- 
zinal-Rath !  ' 

So  deeply  rooted  with   the   Jews  was 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  21 

the  serious  meaning  of  this  life  and  what 
it  offers  or  denies,  at  all  times,  that 
even  to  his  hope  of  immortality  he  gave 
a  this-world  turn.  His  motto  in  this 
respect  was  the  word :  The  memory  of 
the  just  is  for  a  blessing.  His  dead  are 
not  allowed  to  die  for  the  memory. 
During  the  whole  of  the  first  year  after 
death  his  ritual  prescribes  a  prayer  to  be 
recited  at  the  stated  services  by  the 
mourners;  and  the  anniversaries  of 
deaths  are  loyally  kept  by  children  even 
if  they  live  to  a  ripe  old  age. 

When,  therefore,  the  religious  life  of 
Europe  in  the  beginning  of  this  century 
began  to  take  a  turn  towards  the  life 
that  now  is  and  the  amelioration  of  its 
conditions,  the  Jews  were  among  the 
readiest  to  receive  and  cultivate  the  new 
spirit.  They  looked  upon  it  as  a  con- 
firmation of  the  hope  and  the  faith  by 
which  they  have  been  sustained  so  long; 
and  they  are  now  found  among  the  most 
active    promoters    of     institutions     de- 


22  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

signed  to  bring  a  little  nearer  the  earthly 
paradise  of  which  we  have  been  dream- 
ing and  singing  and  preaching  for  so 
long  a  time. 

Suppose  we  reach  to  it  as  near  as  this 
earth  permits,  will  Judaism  still  survive, 
or  be  absorbed,  voluntarily  or  otherwise, 
in  the  realization  of  its  ideals  ?  Who 
can  tell!  This  only  is  certain:  its  merits 
will  not  pass  out  of  the  memory  of 
men.  Can  we  Jews  be  satisfied  with  this 
consummation  ?  Why  not !  What  is 
good  for  individual  man  must  be  good 
for  any  conglomeration  of  men ;  and 
what  is  better  for  the  individual  than 
the  thought  that  the  best  fruit  of  his  toil 
has  nourished  the  best  life  of  the  world  ? 
That  such  a  crown  will  some  time  be 
placed  on  the  brow  of  Judah  is  certain. 
The  rest  is  in  God's  hand. 


II 

BUDDHISM 

By  Professor  T.  W.  Rhys  Davids,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 
Oxford  University. 

The  future  Buddha  (the  founder  of 
the  great  system  of  religion  and  philos- 
ophy which  we  call  Buddhism,  and 
which  he  called  the  Dhamma  or  the 
Norm)  was  born  in  the  sixth  century 
B.C.,  in  a  noble  family  of  Aryan  descent, 
then  settled  at  a  place  called  Kapila-vat- 
thu,  near  what  is  now  the  boundary  be- 
tween British  India  and  Nepal.  How,  in 
his  twenty-ninth  year,  he  left  his  wife 
and  only  child  and  went  out  into  the 
wilderness  to  become  a  homeless  wan- 
derer; how  he  spent  six  years  of  pro- 
bationary studies  into  the  mysteries  of 
life ;  how,    after  much   mental  struggle, 

23 


24  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

he  at  last  deemed  himself  to  have  dis- 
covered the  solution  of  that  mystery, 
and  came  forward  as  a  teacher  of  the 
new  doctrine;  how  he  founded  the  Bud- 
dhist Order,  that  oldest  and  most  influ- 
ential of  all  mendicant  Orders;  and  how 
he  died  peacefully  forty-five  years  after- 
wards, is  now  well  known  to  all.  What 
we  have  to  consider  for  a  short  space  are 
the  salient  features  of  that  philosophy 
of  life  which  he  set  forth. 

When  he  began  to  think,  it  was  not  so 
much  the  fear  of  the  gods  that  most 
filled  with  awe  the  minds  of  previous 
thinkers,  as  the  fear  of  transmigration. 
The  belief  in  the  transmigration  of 
souls,  everywhere  a  part  of  primitive 
animism,  had  then  acquired  in  the  valley 
of  the  Ganges  a  power  and  a  vitality 
much  greater,  much  more  influential, 
than  it  had  at  a  similar  stage  in  the  re- 
ligious evolution  of  other  ancient  peo- 
ples. Very  real,  very  constantly  present 
to  the  minds  of  ordinary  men,   the  idea 


THE  WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  25 

filled  the  heart  of  the  more  thoughtful 
with  a  vague  dread  of  the  future.  How 
was  this  transmigration  to  end  ?  Where, 
even  after  endless  aeons  of  different  lives 
in  different  bodies,  could  the  soul  look 
to  find  rest  and  peace  at  last  ?  Even  a 
rebirth  in  heaven  offered  no  security. 
For  the  gods  and  the  angel-spirits,  how- 
ever long  the  duration  of  their  bliss,  were 
doomed  to  fall,  in  their  turn,  from  their 
high  estate,  and  be  reborn,  according  to 
their  deeds,  in  other  bodies. 

The  most  imaginative  and  poetic 
thought  they  had  found  a  way  of  es- 
cape. They  postulated  a  god,  higher 
than  all  other  gods,  a  personification  of 
the  mystic  words  of  the  ancient  sacri- 
fice, Brahma,  in  whom  all  else  that  lived 
found  its  life.  The  logical  conclusion 
was  further  drawn  that  all  matter  also 
was  derived  from  Brahma,  was  Brahma. 
It  is  an  error  to  trace  back  into  pre- 
Buddhistic  literature  the  notion  of  an 
absorption   after  death   into  this  all-per- 


26  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

vading  deity.  It  was  enough  for  the 
thinkers  of  that  day  that  the  man  who, 
in  this  life,  realized  the  identity  of  his 
own  soul  with  Brahma,  would,  when  he 
died,  go  to  the  Brahma  world,  and  thence 
never  return,  never  be  reborn.  Thus, 
and  thus  only,  was  a  firm  resting-place 
to  be  found.  The  peace  realized  already 
in  this  life  as  a  consequence  of  the  sense  of 
identity  with  God  would  never  pass  away. 
This  theory,  though  common  to  vari- 
ous schools  among  the  Brahmins,  was 
confined  to  the  few.  It  was  taught,  in 
poorest  hermitages,  as  a  mystery  attain- 
able only  by  the  select,  the  deepest 
thinkers,  and  even  by  them  only  by  the 
grace  of  God.  The  mass  of  the  people, 
when  they  thought  about  such  things, 
were  content,  as  we  see  from  the  funeral 
ceremonies,  to  look  forward  to  a  rebirth 
among  the  departed  fathers  in  the  world 
of  the  gods.  The  more  religious  thought 
to  make  this  end  more  sure  by  careful 
observance  of  sacrificial  rites  and  custom- 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  27 

ary  duties,  or  even,  in  extreme  cases,  by 
ascetic  practices  of  various  kinds.  But 
just  before  the  rise  of  Buddhism  there 
had  been,  due  greatly  to  favorable 
political  and  economic  conditions,  a 
remarkable  increase  in  the  popularity  of 
all  sorts  of  theosophic  speculation ;  and 
numerous  teachers,  not  by  any  means 
always  Brahmins,  were  posing  as  sophists, 
and  as  teachers  of  new  things. 

Under  two  such  teachers  the  future 
Buddha  at  first,  immediately  after  his 
renunciation,  studied.  But,  being  dis- 
satisfied with  their  teaching,  because  it 
dealt  more  with  the  attainment  of  self- 
induced  trance  than  with  the  ethical 
training  he"  desired,  he  left  them,  to  work 
out  the  question  by  and  for  himself. 
We  cannot,  therefore,  be  surprised  to 
find,  either,  on  the  one  hand,  that  the 
system  he  afterwards  put  forth  bore  evi- 
dent traces  of  the  previous  speculation, 
or,  on  the  other,  that  it  differed  so 
greatly  from  that  speculation  in  matters 


28  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

fundamental  that  it  stamps  him  as  the 
most  original  of  all  the  leading  religious 
teachers  of  the  world. 

His  system  aims,  like  the  previous 
ones,  at  salvation  from  transmigration. 
But  he  went  behind  transmigration. 
Why  did  they  all  dread  this  endless  trans- 
migration unless  renewed  becomings 
meant  also  renewed  sorrow  ?  The  object 
to  be  aimed  at  must,  therefore,  be,  above 
all  and  after  all,  the  conquest  of  sorrow. 
But  what  is  sorrow  other  than  a  subjec- 
tive feeling,  an  experience  of  one's  own 
mind  ?  It  is  the  separation  from  the 
loved  and  liked,  the  enforced  union  with 
the  dreaded  and  disliked,  the  sense  of 
wants  unsatisfied,  the  sense  of  growing 
old,  of  decay  and  death.  Now,  all  these 
are  found  wherever  a  separate  individu- 
ality is  found.  And  that  is  the  reason 
why  these  constant  becomings,  these  re- 
iterated rebirths  (which  always  involve  a 
separate  individuality)  are  bound  up  with 
sorrow. 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  29 

What  brings  all  this  about  ?  It  is  the 
unsatisfied  longings  at  the  moment  of 
death  that  cause  the  rebirth.  (Here  the 
Indian  thinker  agrees,  not  only  with  his 
own  predecessors,  but  also  with  Plato.) 
And  these  longings  are,  always  and  only, 
of  three  kinds — the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the 
lust  of  life,  and  the  love  of  this  present 
world.  To  lay  these,  then,  aside,  to  get 
rid  of  them,  to  become  free  from  them — 
that  would  be  the  means  to  the  end  that 
all  the  religious  thinkers  of  that  day 
equally  desired. 

But  these  ignoble  longings  are  also 
things  of  the  mind,  the  outcome  of  a 
man's  own  heart.  The  way,  then,  and 
the  only  way,  to  the  conquest  of  them 
must  be  the  conquest  of  one's  own  heart 
by  the  cultivation  of  the  opposite  dis- 
positions. No  theosophical  speculation, 
no  views  about  one's  soul,  no  hopes  of 
a  future  life,  no  sacrifices,  no  penances, 
no  external  aid,  can  here  avail.  Nay, 
more  than  this — reliance  on  one  or  all  of 


30  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

these  expedients  only  serves  to  turn  the 
attention  away  from  the  only  useful 
struggle,  which  is  the  struggle  after  self- 
conquest.  The  other,  then  so  popular, 
methods  are  all  worse  than  useless,  they 
are  actually  pernicious. 

Now,  self-conquest  is  not  so  easy.  It 
must  be  carried  on  gradually,  and  accord- 
ing to  a  system,  or  the  intellectual  and 
ethical  effort  will  be  vain.  The  system 
put  forward  by  the  Buddha  is  well  known 
as  the  Noble  Eightfold  Path  (in  Pali  the 
Ariyo  Atthangiko  Maggo),  that  is  to  say: 

i.  Right  Views.  5.  Right  Livelihood. 

2.  Right  Aspirations.  6.   Right  Effort. 

3.  Right  Speech.  7.   Right  Mindfulness. 

4.  Right  Conduct.  8.  Right  Rapture. 

To  have  reached  the  end  of  this  eight- 
fold path,  to  have  made  each  of  its  eight 
divisions  part  and  parcel  of  one's  own 
nature,  to  have  become  all  that  it  implies, 
is  Arahatship  or  Nirvana.  And  the 
unshakable  emancipation  of  heart  which 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  31 

the  Arahat  then  enjoys  is  described  as 
the  aim  and  the  essence,  the  pith  and 
the  goal,  of  Buddhism.1 

How  tame  it  must  have  seemed,  how 
empty,  how  pale,  compared  with  the 
sacrificial  rites,  or  the  elaborate  pen- 
ances, or  the  high-flown  theosophies  of 
the  other  religious  teachers!  One  can 
almost  hear  the  sneer  of  the  worldly- 
wise  superior  person  of  that  day  against 
the  "  platitudes  of  the  Noble  Eightfold 
Path;"  one  can  almost  feel  the  want 
for  something  more  supernatural,  more 
striking,  that  would  at  once  be  felt  by 
the  theosophists  on  hearing  the  simpli- 
city of  this  new  doctrine. 

Whether  one  agrees  with  Buddhism 
or  not,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  these  objec- 
tions, at  least,  are  unfounded,  exagger- 
ated. It  may  be  a  platitude  that  every 
man  ought  to  have  right  views.  It  is 
not  a  platitude — most  men  would  deny 

1  Majjhima,  I.,  205. 


32  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

it  (and  none  more  contemptuously  than 
the  superior  person) — that  every  man 
ought  to  have  right  rapture.  It  was  not 
only  not  a  platitude,  it  was  either  a  col- 
ossal blunder  or  a  new  truth  of  the  very 
greatest  weight,  that  salvation  was  to  be 
sought  in  a  state  of  mind,  and  in  that 
only.  Whether  right  or  wrong,  no  one 
in  the  history  of  the  world  had  hitherto 
put  forward  such  a  doctrine.  And  it 
certainly  was  not  a  simple  matter  that 
these  eight,  and  just  these  eight,  should 
have  been  held  to  be,  in  themselves, 
sufficient.  Nor  was  it  so  simple  even  to 
grasp  what  the  eight  points,  thus  delib- 
erately chosen,  actually  did,  and  did  not, 
include  and  mean ;  still  less  what  the 
Path,  as  a  whole,  leads  up  to  and  in- 
volves. Whatever  else  it  was,  early  Bud- 
dhism was  a  most  original,  a  most  care- 
fully thought  out  and  balanced  system. 

This  system  is  explained  in  the  collec- 
tion of  1 86  Dialogues  of  the  Buddha 
preserved  to  us  in  the  Buddhist  sacred 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  33 

books.  The  forty-third  of  these  Dia- 
logues is  devoted  to  the  elucidation  of 
what  is  meant  by  right  views.  It  will  be 
well,  even  only  as  a  specimen,  to  set  out 
in  detail  what  this  elucidation  is  as  ex- 
plained in  the  ninth  of  the  Dialogues  of 
lesser  length.  And,  first,  the  man  of 
right  views  understands  what  is  evil  and 
what  is  good,  and  the  roots  of  each. 
And,  again,  he  knows  what  are  the  four 
bases  of  bodily  and  mental  life,  and  how 
these  bases  come  into  action  and  after- 
wards cease.  The  four,  it  may  be  men- 
tioned in  passing,  are  food,  contact 
(through  the  senses  with  the  outside 
world),  mental  activity,  and  conscious- 
ness. There  is  no  mention  either  of 
Brahma  or  of  a  soul  or  of  intuitive 
ideas.  As  a  consequence  of  this  knowl- 
edge, the  disciple  gets  entirely  rid  of 
sensuality  and  of  ill  will  toward  other 
beings,  for  he  roots  out  of  his  heart  the 
tendency  toward  the  pride  that  arises 
from  the  belief  in  an  ego ;  and  thus, 
3 


34  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

conquering  delusion  and  gaining  wisdom, 
he,  even  while  yet  in  this  present  world, 
makes  an  end  of  sorrow. 

And,  again,  he  knows  what  sorrow  is, 
and  its  origin  and  its  cessation — how  it 
is  bound  up  with  the  temporary  individ- 
uality resulting  from  the  evanescent 
union  of  the  five  groups  of  bodily  and 
mental  qualities  (which  go  to  make  up 
each  individual) ;  how  it  results  from 
craving,  and  ceases  in  Arahatship. 

And,  again,  he  knows  what  old  age 
and  death  mean,  the  getting  aged  and 
broken  and  white  and  wrinkled,  the  ap- 
proaching end  of  one's  allotted  span  of 
life,  the  breaking  up  of  one's  bodily 
organs;  and  the  fall  out  of  the  class  of 
beings  to  which  one  belongs,  the  disin- 
tegration of  the  five  groups,  the  vanish- 
ing away  from  the  sphere  that  one  has 
filled — how  both  of  them,  death  and  old 
age,  come  from  birth,  and  how  both  are 
overcome  by  Arahatship. 

And,  again,  he  knows  about  birth  and 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  35 

becoming,  and  about  the  grasping  and 
thirst  from  which  they  come,  and  how 
all  of  these  cease  in  Arahatship. 

And  he  knows  about  the  sensations 
and  about  the  ideas  that  follow  thereon, 
how  they  arise  and  what  they  lead  to ; 
and  about  name,  and  form,  and  con- 
sciousness, and  mental  predispositions; 
how  all  have  their  root  in  ignorance,  and 
how  ignorance  can  be  analyzed  ulti- 
mately into  the  four  great  evils — lust 
and  becoming,  delusion,  and  unwisdom. 
When  he  knows  all  this,  then  is  his  in- 
sight right,  his  views  are  straight,  and 
endowed  with  an  abiding  trust  in  the 
truth ;  he  has  entered  into  the  realm  of 
the  good  law. 

It  may  safely  be  said  that  no  one,  if 
asked  to  define  right  views,  would  give 
precisely  this  explanation.  We  have 
here  unfolded  to  us  what  was  then,  and 
what  is  still,  a  new  and  original  view  of 
the  mystery  of  life.  The  "  soul"  the- 
ory, which  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  other 


36  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

religious  systems,  is  conspicuous  only  by 
its  absence.  And  there  is  no  reference 
to  any  final  causes.  There  is,  indeed,  a 
constant  reference  to  causes  and  effects 
— very  often  of  a  kind  that  must  seem 
strange,  and  at  first  sight  almost  unintel- 
ligible. But  the  main  thesis  is  that  life 
is  the  result  of  a  temporary  collocation 
of  conditions  that  are  always  changing 
and  are  constantly  tending  to  dissolve. 
To  be  able  to  trace  the  rise  of  any  one 
state  from  the  immediately  preceding 
one  is  part  of  '  right  views.'  To  be 
able  to  explain  the  ultimate  and  neces- 
sary first  cause,  or  causes,  is  no  such 
part.  It  is  implied  (and  is  elsewhere  ex- 
plicitly stated)  that  to  have  views  about 
ultimate  questions  is  a  positive  danger, 
inasmuch  as  it  leads  the  man  who  holds 
them  to  rest  on  them  without  paying 
that  strict  attention  to  the  immediate 
causes  that  it  is  so  important  for  him  to 
grasp. 

But  the  inevitable  limits  of  space  pre- 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  37 

elude  any  further  comment  on  this  state- 
ment of  the  right  views  that  are  the  first 
thing  necessary  to  the  Noble  Path.  The 
right  aspirations  are  explained  in  the 
twenty-ninth  Dialogue.  Lowest  of  all 
comes  the  aspiration  after  a  sufficient 
livelihood,  and  the  regard  and  respect  of 
one's  fellow-men.  Better  than  this  is 
the  aspiration  after  rectitude  of  life. 
Better  again  than  that  is  the  aspiration 
after  the  rapture  and  the  mental  peace 
that  arise  from  the  insight  of  meditation. 
Still  better  is  the  aspiration  after  cer- 
tainty of  knowledge.  And  best  of  all  is 
the  aspiration  after  that  emancipation  of 
heart  that,  first  obtained  as  a  temporary, 
momentary  state,  may  by  continued 
effort  be  made  a  permanent  part  of  one's 
very  being.  That  is  the  thing — this  un- 
shakable emancipation  of  heart — which  is 
the  meaning,  and  the  pith,  and  the  end 
of  the  whole  matter.1 

1  Taken  in  abstract  from  Majjhima  I.,  pp.  192-197, 
where  the  reference  is  to  members  of  the  Order. 


38  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

The  interpretations  of  right  speech 
and  conduct  and  livelihood  and  effort  are 
not  so  different  from  the  ordinary  mean- 
ing attached  to  similar  expressions  in 
the  West.  But  they  leave  out  every- 
thing not  in  harmony  with  the  above. 
Right  livelihood,  it  may  be  added,  in- 
volves, .  among  other  things,  that  it 
brings  hurt  or  danger  to  no  living  thing 
— a  far-reaching  ethical  proposition  that, 
if  rigidly  observed,  would  play  sad  havoc 
with  many  modes  of  livelihood  highly 
honored  in  the  present  social  conditions 
of  the  West.  Right  effort  has,  of 
course,  nothing  to  do  with  getting  on 
and  making  money.  It  is  a  never-flag- 
ging activity  of  the  mind  directed  to 
ethical  ends.  And  the  important  place 
it  occupies  in  the  "  Path  "  is  in  striking 
contradiction  to  the  constant  hints 
in  popular  literature  at  the  apathy 
and  the  idle,  dreamy  sort  of  existence 
supposed  to  be  characteristic  of  Bud- 
dhism. 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  39 

Right  mindfulness  would  be  almost 
inevitably  misunderstood  by  Western 
readers  without  the  aid  of  commentary. 
It  means  a  constant  presence  of  mind  in 
all  the  ordinary  acts  of  life,  never  for 
one  moment  forgetful  of  the  real  facts  of 
the  subjective  and  objective  phenomena 
that  are  ever  passing  before  one's  mental 
vision.  This  is  set  out  in  detail  in  many 
passages  in  the  Sacred  Books,  and  two 
of  the  Dialogues  are  devoted  exclu- 
sively to  it.  There  it  is  laid  down  that 
this  constant  mental  alertness  is  the  only 
method  for  purification,  for  getting  be- 
yond grief  and  woe,  for  putting  an  end 
to  sorrow  and  suffering,  for  the  realiza- 
tion of  Nirvana.1 

Finally,  right  rapture  is  the  peace  of 
heart  which  follows  on  the  sense  of  vic- 
tory gained;  and  is  realized  by  that 
steadfast  concentration  of  mind  in  which 
the  sense  of  "  This  is  I"  and  "  This  is 


1  See,  for  instance,  Majjhima  I.,  55—63. 


40  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

mine  '     has   been    finally  got  rid  of  and 
overcome.1 

The  system  is  pieced  together  like  a 
puzzle.  Each  detail  is  only  really  mas- 
tered when  its  particular  place  in  the 
system  is  kept  before  one's  mind.  An 
exposition  confined  to  the  necessarily 
narrow  limits  of  such  an  article  as  the 
present  one  can  attempt  to  deal  with 
only  the  more  fundamental  and  general 
features  of  the  scheme.  To  any  one 
who  will  study  it,  it  is  full  of  suggestion 
for  practical  application  in  the  ethics  of 
to-day.  And  its  great  value  is  the  aid 
which  it  affords  to  the  student  of  the 
comparative  history  of  the  development 
of  human  thought.2 

1  Compare  Anguttara  III.,  32,  with  Milinda  325, 
and  Samyutta  IV.,  297,  350,  and  Dhamma  Sangani 
II,  15,  24. 

2  Further  information  will  be  found  in  my  just  pub- 
lished "American  Lectures,"  and  in  the  authorities 
there  referred  to. 


Ill 

CONFUCIANISM 

By  the  Rev.  Arthur  H.  Smith 

Author  of  "Chinese  Characteristics" 

What  is  Confucianism  ?  By  Confu- 
cianism we  mean  the  essential  teaching 
of  those  works  which  the  Chinese  reckon 
as  classics.  According  to  the  narrowest 
enumeration,  these  are  five  in  number — 
the  Book  of  Changes,  the  Book  of  Odes, 
the  Book  of  History,  the  Book  of  Rites, 
and  the  Spring  and  Autumn  Annals. 
To  these  are  also  added  the  Conversations 
of  Confucius,  the  Book  of  Filial  Piety, 
the  Works  of  Mencius,  and  Rituals  and 
Commentaries,  making  a  total  of  thirteen. 
The  aggregate  bulk  of  these  works  is 
probably  somewhat  less  than  that  of  our 
Old  Testament,  but  if  the  Commentaries 

41 


42  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

are  included  the  classics  comprise  in 
themselves  a  vast  library.. 

Theoretical  Confucianism  is  to  be  got 
at  by  a  distillation  of  these  ancient  books, 
and  the  writer  of  this  paper  wishes  to 
disclaim  any  special  fitness  for  the  task 
of  discussing  a  topic  so  comprehensive 
and  of  which  he  knows  so  little  at  first 
hand. 

At  the  Chicago  Parliament  of  Reli- 
gions by  far  the  longest  essay  presented 
was  by  the  Hon.  Pung  Kwang  Yu,  Sec- 
retary to  the  Chinese  Legation  at  Wash- 
ington. It  extends  to  sixty-six  pages, 
more  than  ten  times  the  average  length 
of  the  papers  read  there,  and  is  an  elab- 
orate discussion  of  many  branches  of 
our  subject.  It  is  of  special  interest, 
'  as  it  is  the  first  exposition  ever  given 
of  Confucianism  in  English  by  a  distin- 
guished and  able  man,  himself  a  Con- 
fucianist.  It  is  also  the  first  attempt  of 
such  a  man  to  estimate  the  relative  value 
of    all   religions,   especially  of  Christian- 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  43 

ity.  In  addition  to  this,  it  gives  us  the 
view  which  the  Chinese  Government 
holds  of  Christian  missions  to-day.' 
The  writer  of  that  essay  was  asked  not 
to  make  it  "  technical,"  but  he  found  it 
impossible  to  make  it  otherwise.  The 
writer  of  the  present  paper  is  requested 
to  make  it  "  popular,"  but  this  he  feels 
more  and  more  convinced  to  be  imprac- 
ticable as  he  considers  the  matter  longer. 
To  most  readers  the  Confucian  classics 
are  inaccessible,  but  the  report  of  the 
Parliament  of  Religions  has  been  sown 
broadcast  over  the  whole  earth.  It 
seems,  therefore,  best  to  summarize,  as 
briefly  as  may  be,  the  essential  parts  of 
Mr.  Pung's  exposition,  and  those  who 
wish  for  further  elucidation  have  only  to 
study  his  essay  for  themselves.  Econ- 
omy of  space  forbids  more  than  a  mere 
abstract,  but  we  shall  endeavor  to  give 
the  spirit  of  Mr.  Pung's  thoughts  with- 
out at  all  following  his  order: 

While   it   is   not  true,  as  some  claim, 


44  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

that  China  has  no  religion  of  her  own, 
Confucianism  is  an  ethical  system,  and  is 
not  a  "religion"  at  all.  Thousands  of 
years  ago  the  Chinese  were  obliged  to 
give  up  religion  as  a  basis  of  govern- 
ment, because  when  secular  and  spiritual 
matters  were  mixed,  misfortunes  and 
calamities  befell  the  nation.  Nothing 
could  now  induce  the  Chinese  to  consent 
that  civil  and  religious  affairs  should  inter- 
sect each  other. 

There  is  a  Spirit  who  rules  this  uni- 
verse of  created  things;  who  accom- 
plishes all  his  purposes  without  effort ; 
whose  presence  cannot  be  perceived  by 
the  senses ;  who  dwells  ever  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  serene  majesty;  who  is  the 
dispenser  of  all  things,  eternal  and  un- 
changeable. Before  the  creation  of  the 
universe  he  existed,  and  after  the  disso- 
lution of  the  universe  he  will  remain  the 
same.  He  is  called  "Ti,'  Supreme 
Ruler.  "  Ti '  is  synonymous  with 
heaven,    and    there    is    only    one    such. 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  45 

Heaven  and  earth  constitute  a  dualism. 
The  conjunction  of  their  vital  essences 
brings  forth  a  third,  the  inscrutable  part 
of  which  is  called  a  spirit.  Heaven 
unites  its  essences  with  those  of  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars,  and  spirits  of  heaven 
result.  In  a  similar  way  the  spirits  of 
mountains,  rivers,  and  seas  are  produced. 
When  any  of  these  spirits  in  some  spe- 
cial way  benefit  creation,  the  national 
government  canonizes  them,  and  they 
then  take  their  place  by  the  side  of 
heaven. 

Man  is  the  product  of  heaven  and 
earth,  the  union  of  the  active  and  pas- 
sive principles,  the  conjunction  of  the 
soul  and  spirit,  and  the  ethereal  essence 
of  the  five  elements.  Being  the  con- 
necting link  between  unities  and  dual- 
isms, man  is  called  the  heart  of  heaven 
and  earth.  Spirit  must  not  be  con- 
founded with  nature.  Nature  is  an  ac- 
tive element,  matter  is  a  passive  element. 
To   the   interaction   of    the    essences    of 


46  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

the  active  and  the  passive  principles  the 
spirits  of  mountains,  marshes,  birds,  in- 
sects, and  of  man  are  due.  The  spirit 
of  man  is  in  a  more  concentrated  and 
better  disciplined  state  than  the  spirits 
of  the  rest  of  the  created  things.  For 
this  reason  the  spirit  of  man,  after  death, 
though  separated  from  the  body,  is  able 
to  retain  its  essential  virtues,  and  does 
not  become  easily  dissipated.  This  is 
the  ghost  or  disembodied  spirit. 

Spirits  owe  their  existence  to  material 
substances,  and  as  the  substances  may 
be  useful  or  noxious,  so  spirits  may  be 
benevolent  or  malevolent.  A  man  whose 
heart  is  good  must  have  a  good  spirit. 
Spirits  attract  one  another,  and  when 
good  spirits  attract  one  another,  this  is 
happiness.  When  bad  spirits  attract  one 
another,  this  is  misery.  When  the  bad 
spirits  produce  misfortune  and  calami- 
ties, the  wise  legislator  puts  his  reli- 
ance on  music  and  ceremonies  to  adjust 
the  social  equilibrium.      His    aim   is  to 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  47 

restore  the  human  heart  to  its  pristine 
innocence  by  establishing  a  standard  of 
goodness,  and  by  pointing  out  a  way  of 
salvation  to  every  creature.  The  right 
principles  of  action  can  be  discovered 
only  by  studying  the  waxing  of  the  ac- 
tive and  passive  elements  as  set  forth  in 
the  Book  of  Changes,  and  surely  cannot 
be  understood  by  those  who  believe  in 
what  priests  call  the  dispensations  of 
Providence.  Man  is  endowed  with  fac- 
ulties of  the  highest  dignity,  but  if  men 
lose  this  dignity  in  unlimited  indulgence, 
even  heaven  cannot  possibly  do  any- 
thing for  them ;  but  if,  after  experien- 
cing a  sense  of  shame  mingled  with  fear 
and  trembling,  they  repent  of  their  evil 
doings,  they  become  men  again  with 
their  humanity  restored.  This  is  a  doc- 
trine maintained  by  all  schools  of  Con- 
fucianists. 

Nature  is  grand  and  impartial  in  its 
actions.  The  rule  of  life  should  be  con- 
formity to  nature.     To  devote  one's  at- 


48  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

tention  to  the  investigation  of  the  laws 
of  the  spiritual  world  is  unprofitable. 
Consequently  Confucius  made  man  his 
study,  and  would  not  discourse  on  won- 
ders, brute  force,  rebellion,  and  spirits. 
He  says  that  the  art  of  rendering  effect- 
ive service  to  the  people  consists  in  keep- 
ing aloof  from  the  spirits  as  well  as  in 
holding  them  in  respect.  "  We  have 
not.  yet  performed  our  duties  to  men,' 
he  says;  "  how  can  we  perform  our 
duties  to  spirits  ? '  We  know  not  as 

yet  about  life ;  how  can  we  know  about 
death  ? '  "  He  who  has  sinned  against 
Heaven  has  no  place  to  pray.'  Under 
such  circumstances  any  attempt  to  pre- 
sent before  the  people  questions  and 
problems  that  are  incomprehensible  and 
incapable  of  demonstration  serves  only 
to  delude  them  by  a  crowd  of  misleading 
lights  and  to  lead  them  to  error  and  con- 
fusion. The  wise  rulers  of  antiquity 
laid  down  rules  of  propriety  for  the  reg- 
ulation of  the  three  "  superior  claims,' 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  49 

to  wit,  that  of  the  sovereign,  the  father, 
and  the  husband,  as  well  as  of  the  "  five 
relations,"  namely,  those  of  sovereign 
and  subject,  of  parents  and  children,  of 
husbands  and  wives,  of  elder  and  younger 
brothers,  and  of  friends  toward  one  an- 
other. 

All  intelligent  Chinese  have  for  this 
reason  been  followers  of  Confucius,  and 
Confucius  really  succeeded  to  the  an- 
cient line  of  priests.  To  do  reverence 
to  spirits  is  to  do  nothing  more  than  to 
refrain  from  giving  them  annoyance,  and 
to  do  reverence  to  Heaven  is  nothing 
more  than  to  refrain  from  giving  it  annoy- 
ance. On  these  points  the  ritual  code  is 
explicit,  and  there  is,  therefore,  no  de- 
mand for  other  religious  works.  What 
is  properly  called  religion  has  never 
been  considered  as  a  desirable  thing  for 
the  people  to  know  and  for  the  govern- 
ment to  sanction.  The  reason  is  that 
every  attempt  to  propagate  religious 
doctrines  in  China  has  always  given  rise 
4 


50  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

to  the  spreading  of  falsehoods  and 
errors,  and  finally  resulted  in  rebellions 
and  dire  calamity.  It  .makes  not  the 
least  difference  whether  the  particular 
form  of  religion  teaches  truth  or  error, 
nor  what  the  character  of  the  propagan- 
dists may  be.  The  final  resnalt  is  ever 
the  same,  except  that  a  religion  that 
teaches  error  precipitates  a  crisis  more 
speedily,  that  is  all. 

Both  Taoists  and  Buddhists  teach  of 
future  rewards  and  punishments.  The 
purpose  in  doing  so  is  laudable;  it  is 
the  perpetuation  of  falsehood  by  clinging 
to  errors  that  deserves  condemnation. 
Confucianists  do  not  accept  such  doc- 
trines, though  they  make  no  attempt  to 
suppress  them.  Heaven  and  hell  are 
found  in  this  life,  without  troubling  the 
Buddhist  Pluto  and  the  Christ  of  the 
Christians  to  judge  the  dead  after  death, 
and  reward  every  man  according  to  his 
deserts.  As  a  rule,  men  given  to  specu- 
lations on  the  world   of  spirits  are   for- 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  51 

getful  of  the  duties  of  this  life,  and  while 
employed  by  officials  on  occasions  of 
public  worship,  they  are  at  the  same  time 
despised  by  the  Confucianists  as  the 
dregs  of  the  people.  As  Buddhism  says 
nothing  of  the  regulation  of  the  family, 
the  government  of  the  State,  and  the 
pacification  of  the  world,  there  can  be 
no  conflict  between  Buddhism  and  the 
affairs  of  state. 

There  are  many  resemblances  between 
the  teachings  of  Christ  and  those  of 
Confucianists,  but  the  New  Testament  is 
very  meagre  on  questions  respecting  the 
human  faculties  and  the  principles  of 
morality,  while  the  Confucian  writers  are 
very  full.  There  is  a  Trinity  in  Taoism, 
a  Trinity  in  Buddhism,  and  a  Trinity  in 
Christianity.  If,  by  living  according  to 
the  dictates  of  nature  and  by  suppress- 
ing the  desires  of  the  flesh,  one  arrives 
at  perfect  agreement  with  nature,  and 
obtains  a  complete  mastery  over  desires, 
such    a   one    Buddhists    call   a    Buddha, 


52  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

Taoists  a  genius,  and  Christians  a  child 
of  God.  It  is  idle  for  thinkers  to  attack 
one  another,  for  all  men  cannot  possibly 
arrive  at  the  same  opinion  on  any  sub- 
ject. The  progress  of  Christianity  does 
not  concern  Confucianists  in  the  least. 

Thus  far  the  Hon.  Pung  Kwang  Yu. 
To  this  ought  to  be  appended  a  quota- 
tion from  a  speech  of  Li  Hung  Chang  in 
New  York  last  autumn,  in  which  he  said 
to  a  delegation  representing  missionary 
interests:  "In  a  philosophical  point  of 
view,  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  appre- 
ciate, Christianity  does  not  differ  much 
from  Confucianism,  as  the  Golden  Rule 
is  expressed  in  a  positive  form  in  one, 
while  it  is  expressed  in  the  negative  form 
in  the  other.  It  is  at  present  enough  to 
conclude  that  there  exists  not  much 
difference  between  the  wise  sayings  of 
the  two  greatest  teachers,  on  the  foun- 
dations of  which  the  whole  structure  of 
the  two  systems  of  morality  is  built.' 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  53 

There  are  six  essential  elements  of 
Confucianism,  five  of  which,  so  far  as  we 
know,  differentiate  it  from  any  other 
system  of  non-Christian  thought.  Of 
these,  the  first  is  its  doctrine  of  the  direct 
responsibility  of  the  sovereign  to  Heaven, 
Shang  Ti,  or  God.  This  is  abundantly 
illustrated  in  the  classical  writings,  and 
it  is  a  factor  of  the  government  of  the 
present  day  as  really  as  in  times  past. 
From  this  source  originates  the  whole 
complex  theory  of  Chinese  responsibility, 
which  plays  so  large  a  part  in  the  con- 
duct of  all  Chinese  affairs,  private  as 
well  as  public.  Only  the  Emperor  wor- 
ships Shang  Ti,  although  the  people  do 
reverence  to  "  heaven  and  earth,"  with 
very  little  conception  of  what  it  is  that 
they  worship. 

The  second  element  is  the  startling 
theory  that  the  people  are  of  more  impor- 
tance than  the  sovereign.  The  latter 
reigns  by  the  decree  of  Heaven.  When 
he   loses    Heaven's    decree,    he   has    no 


54  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

longer,  the  right  to  rule.  The  Chinese 
theory  of  government  has  been  com- 
pendiously described  as  despotism  tem- 
pered by  the  right  of  rebellion — a  right 
constantly  exercised  in  every  period  of 
Chinese  history.  This  feature  of  Chi- 
nese rule  makes  it  the  most  unique  com- 
bination of  absolute  monarchy  and 
"  triumphant  democracy  "  that  the  world 
has  ever  seen. 

The  third  element  is  the  clear  recogni- 
tion of  the  various  social  relations,  as 
already  described.  To  a  Chinese  these 
five  relations  exhaust  the  universe,  just 
as  a  Christian  considers  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments to  be  co-extensive  with  hu- 
man activity.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is 
easy  to  show  that  many  '  relations,' 
such  as  those  between  capital  and  labor, 
for  example,  find  no  recognition  at  all. 

The  fourth  element  is  the  lofty  moral 
system  of  Confucianism.  The  five  con- 
stant virtues  are  benevolence,  righteous- 
ness,   propriety,    knowledge,    and    good 


THE .  WORLD '  S  RELIGION'S  5  5 

faith.     The  virtues  are  far  oftener  .talked 
of    in   China   than   the  precepts   of    the 
New  Testament  in  Christian  lands.  They 
form  a  standard  which  is  brought  to  the 
attention    of    all    Chinese   continuously. 
The   civil   service   examinations,   a   slow 
growth  of  many  ages,  have  unified  the 
Chinese  mind   as  the  mind  of  no  other 
people  was  ever  unified,  unless  the  Jews 
form  an  exception.     The  Chinese  habit 
of  using  sententious  classical  mottoes  for 
the  adornment  of  their  door-posts,  mot- 
toes written   afresh   at  every  New  Year 
season,    keeps    the    Confucian    maxims 
always  before  the  eye  of  the  whole  Chi- 
nese   race.       They  are    employed    with 
varied    iteration     in    all    primary    text- 
books, and  the  classics  themselves  form 
the  sole  and  sufficient  staple  of  all  Chi- 
nese learning.     It  is  an  integral  part  of 
the  theory  that   only  the   wise  and  the 
able   should   rule.       The    object    of    the 
elaborate  civil  service  examinations  is  to 
determine  who  the  wise  and  the  able  are. 


56  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

The  fifth  element  is  the  presentation  of 
an  ideal  or  princely  man  as  the  model  on 
which  every  Confucianist  should  form 
his  character.  The  influence  of  this 
ideal  upon  the  unnumbered  millions  of 
Chinese  Confucianists  must  have  been 
measureless.  Confucius  enounced  the 
Golden  Rule  in  a  negative  form,  but  he 
affirms  in  the  same  connection  that  he 
himself  had  not  attained  to  it.  This 
places  before  all  followers  of  the  sage  the 
ambition  to  live  up  to  the  high  level 
which  the  master  himself  had  not  reached. 
Self-examination  is  inculcated  by  the 
precepts  and  by  the  example  of  the 
greatest  rulers  and  wise  men  of  antiquity. 
No  nation,  no  race,  was  ever  better  out- 
fitted .with  admirable  moral  precepts 
than  the  Chinese. 

The  last  element  of  the  six,  only  less 
distinctly  Chinese  than  the  others,  is 
filial  piety.  This  includes  not  only  that 
meaning  naturally  suggested  to  Orien- 
tals,   but   a  great  deal  more,  and  in  es- 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  57 

pecial  the  worship  of  ancestors,  which  is 
the  real  religion  of  the  Chinese  people. 
It  is  perhaps  the  most  potent  among 
several  causes  which  have  perpetuated 
the  Chinese  race  as  a  unit  through  all  the 
millenniums  of  its  vast  history.  It  is 
itself  an  illustration  of  the  saying  of  an 
emperor  of  a  famous  dynasty  more  than 
a  thousand  years  ago,  that  Confucianism 
is  adapted  to  the  Chinese  people  as  water 
to  the  fish. 

To  those  who  believe  that  all  truth  is 
in  its  origin  one,  there  need  be  no  hesi- 
tation in  admitting  that  the  sages  who 
uttered  the  principles  underlying  the 
Confucian  tenets  were  in  a  sense  divinely 
illuminated.  Theirs  was  not  the  inspi- 
ration which  we  find  in  the  Christian 
Scriptures,  but  they  saw  clearly  pro- 
found, far-reaching,  and  eternal  truths. 

Thus  far  we  have  spoken  only  of  theo- 
retical Confucianism.  It  is  of  impor- 
tance to  remember  that  Confucius  was  in 


58  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

no  sense  the  founder  of  the  system 
which  goes  by  his  name.  He  himself 
declared  that  he  was  not  an  originator, 
but  a  transmitter.  It  was  his  glory  to 
have  caught  all  the  rays  of  light  coming 
from  the  dim  past,  and  to  combine  them 
into  one  torch  which  has  ever  since  lit  up 
the  Chinese  path.  But  there  was  a 
Confucianism  before  Confucius;  Taoism, 
or  Rationalism,  which  has  been  its  sole 
native  rival,  has  to  some  extent  modified 
Confucianism  by  interaction.  Taoism 
taught  the  art  of  reducing  nature  by  pro- 
cesses analogous  to  European  alchemy, 
and  the  possibility  of  an  elixir  of  life,  thus 
attaining  immortality.  Yet  this  must 
always  be  the  reward  of  the  few.  Bud- 
dhism, invited  to  China  by  an  emperor 
more  than  six  hundred  years  after  the 
birth  of  Confucius,  attempted  to  fill  the 
void  in  the  human  heart  which  longs  for 
salvation  and  for  a  saviour.  The  success 
of  this  misty  and  chameleon  faith  among 
the   millions   of    hard-headed,    practical 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  59 

Chinese  has  been  phenomenal.  For 
ages  Confucianism  was  its  bitter  foe,  but 
as  a  matter  of  fact  these  three  discord- 
ant contradictories  have  been  inter- 
blended  in  a  way  perhaps  elsewhere 
unexampled  on  this  earth.  Temples  are 
found  all  over  the  empire  in  which  the 
founders  of  the  "  three  religions  "  stand 
side  by  side,  and  by  perpetual  repercus- 
sion for  several  hundred  years  the  maxim 
that  the  three  doctrines  are  one  has  come 
to  be  almost  as  much  believed  as  the 
doctrines  themselves.  The  same  cir- 
cumstance has  resulted  in  such  a  com- 
plex of  faith,  in  three  sets  of  tenets 
which  are,  in  Hamiltonian  phrase,  "  in- 
compossible,"  as  to  confound  those  Oc- 
cidental statisticians  who  insist  upon 
supposing  that  every  man  must  either 
believe  something  or  believe  something 
else ;  whereas  a  Chinese  believes,  or  sup- 
poses that  he  believes,  something  and 
something  else. 


60  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

The  reader  who  has  followed  the  fore 
going  abstract  of  the  most  recent  expo- 
sition of  Confucian  doctrine  is  prepared 
to  judge  in  how  many  essential  particu- 
lars it  fails  to  give  light.  Its  Shang  Ti 
is  remote  and  out  of  relation  with  man- 
kind. He  is  not  a  Father,  and  the  peo- 
ple are  not  allowed  to  worship  him. 
Prayer  is  a  ceremony  by  which  evils  are 
avoided  and  blessings  insured.  Poly- 
theism is  not  only  sanctioned,  but  neces- 
sitated. There  is  no  explanation  of  sin 
and  no  remedy  for  it.  For  those  to 
whom  the  ideal  is  inaccessible  there  is 
no  salvation.  Mere  example  is  elevated 
into  a  force  sufficient  to  keep  the  race  on 
the  right  path.  There  is  no  explanation 
of  its  failure  to  do  so,  and  no  remedy  for 
the  failure.  Ancestral  worship  is  equiv- 
alent to  the  enlargement  of  the  Chinese 
Pantheon  to  include  all  dead  parents. 
This  rite  takes  precedence  of  all  others, 
and  leads  to  the  indefinite  and  reckless 
propagation   of  millions  of    persons    for 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  61 

whose  support  there  is  no  adequate  pro- 
vision. To  this  end  polygamy,  with  all 
its  immeasurable  woes,  is  a  practical 
necessity.  Confucianism  subordinates 
the  children  to  the  parents  as  long  as  the 
parents  live,  and  prevents  the  normal 
development  of  those  thus  conditioned. 
The  highest  result  of  an  ideal  Confucian 
life  is  a  cold  formalism,  and  its  inevita- 
ble tendency  is  to  foster  exaggerated 
self-esteem..  It  has  resulted  in  the  prac- 
tical deification  of  its  leading  sages,  but 
no  one  has  any  hope  of  reproducing 
their  example  in  practice.  It  is  a  cur- 
rent saying  that  there  are  but  two  ideal 
men — one  is  dead,  the  other  not  yet 
born !  This  aphorism  aptly  voices  the 
hopelessness  of  Confucianism. 

Judging  from  a  background  of  twenty- 
five  years'  acquaintance  with  China,  one 
may  pass  through  four  distinct  stages  in 
his  estimate  of  Confucianism.  Coming 
to  it  from  the  atmosphere  of  a  study  of 


62  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

comparative  religion,  he  is  prepared  to 
find  it  the  best  system  ever  devised  by 
the  mind  of  man  for  solving  the  prob- 
lems of  the  race.  He  reveres  the  sages, 
and  is  anxious  to  conserve  all  that  is 
good  in  their  teaching.  After  some 
years  of  experience  he  becomes  alive 
to  the  cavernous  depths  of  sorrow  and 
misery  for  which  Confucianism  has  no 
help  and  no  sympathy.  The  hollowness 
of  its  high-sounding  but  empty  verbiage 
grates  upon  the  ear,  and  he  is  weary  of 
suspicion  and  insincerity  masquerading 
in  the  garments  of  antiquity. 

By  this  time  a  renewed  observation  of 
the  actual  state  of  the  Occidental  world 
serves  to  restore  the  balance  of  judg- 
ment. He  there  beholds  many  evils 
which  are  not  forced  to  the  front  in 
China,  and  he  recognizes  the  fact  that 
there  is  no  such  unity  of  thought  in  any 
Western  land  in  regard  to  ideals  as  there 
is  in  China.  After  a  prolonged  contem- 
plation of  the  restless  world  at  large,  he 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  63 

returns  to  China  full  of  generous  hope- 
fulness that  his  former  opinions  may 
have  been  overdrawn.  But  a  reexam- 
ination of  all  the  phenomena  which  he 
sees,  a  reperusal  of  the  data  upon  which 
previous  judgments  were  formed,  inevi- 
tably lead  to  a  more  emphatic  reaffirma- 
tion of  the  proposition  that  Confucianism 
is  a  spent  force.  Its  golden  age  is  in  the 
past,  while  the  outlook  of  every  Chris- 
tian land  is  toward  the  morning  dawn  of 
a  bright  future.  After  listening  to  the 
varied  eloquence  of  the  speakers  at  the 
Parliament  of  Religions,  one  is  com- 
pelled to  ask,  What,  after  all,  is  the  es- 
sential difference  between  the  Orient  and 
the  Occident  ?  We  believe  it  to  be  this : 
In  the  former,  when  things  are  as  bad  as 
they  can  be,  they  get  worse ;  in  the  Occi- 
dent they  slowly  tend  to  an  improve- 
ment. Confucianism  has  within  it  no 
further  energy  for  the  evolution  of  good, 
but  it  is  a  powerful  conserving  influence. 
China  is  in  a  far  sounder  condition  mor- 


64  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

ally  than  was  the  Roman  Empire  in  the 
time  of  Christ.  We  believe  that  China 
is  sounder  morally  than  Mohammedan 
Turkey,  or  than  polyglot,  metaphysical 
India.  But,  great  as  has  been  its  work, 
Confucianism  is  inert.  It  is  dead. 
Sooner  or  later  it  must  give  way  to  some- 
thing stronger,  wiser,  and  better. 


IV 
MOHAMMEDANISM 

By  the  Rev.  George  Washburn,  D.D. 
President  of  Robert  College,  Constantinople 

Mohammedanism  is  a  positive  religion 
based  upon  the  Koran  and  the  life  and 
teaching  of  Mohammed.  The  Koran  is 
believed  to  be  literally  the  word  of  God, 
communicated  directly  to  the  Prophet, 
and  written  at  his  dictation.  It  is  in- 
spired not  only  verbally  but  in  punctua- 
tion, and  although  the  original  writings 
were  destroyed,  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  we  have  it  in  essentially  the 
same  form  in  which  Mohammed  left  it. 
All  Moslems  accept  it  and  use  it,  believ- 
ing that  the  divine  words  have  a  mystic 
power  whether  they  are  understood  or 
5 


66  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

not.      If  translated,   it  is  no  longer  the 
word  of  God. 

But  it  is  the  life  and  teaching  of  the 
Prophet  as  set  forth  by  the  Imams, 
rather  than  the  Koran,  which  is  the  prac- 
tical basis  of  Mohammedanism,  and  con- 
trols the  faith  and  life  of  the  people. 
Every  effort  was  made  during  the  life- 
time of  those  who  personally  knew  the 
Prophet  to  collect  and  record  all  the  in- 
cidents of  his  life  and  all  his  sayings. 
These  were  carefully  sifted,  and  formed 
the  basis  of  several  lives  of  the  Prophet, 
and  of  collections  of  traditions  in  regard 
to  him,  graded,  according  to  the  weight 
of  testimony,  into  several  classes.  The 
division  of  his  followers  into  Sunnis  and 
Shiahs,  and  of  these  into  a  multitude  of 
contending  sects,  grew  out  of  the  ques- 
tion of  the  succession  to  the  Caliphat, 
and  of  the  interpretation  of  these  tradi- 
tions. Most  of  the  Sunnis  are  followers 
of  the  Imam  Hanifa,  who  was  born  at 
Kufa,  and  lived  from  80  to  150  A.H.      He 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  67 

was  the  great  theologian  of  Islam.  He 
based  his  teaching  upon  the  Koran,  the 
traditions  of  the  sayings  and  acts  of 
the  Prophet,  the  sayings  and  acts  of  the 
earlier  Caliphs,  and  logical  deductions 
from  all  these.  It  is  a  most  elaborate 
system  of  philosophy,  theology,  and  law, 
and  is  the  chief  study  of  the  Ulema  to 
this  day.  There  are  rival  systems  by 
the  Imams  Shafei,  Malek,  and  Hanbal, 
but  they  have  few  followers.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  enter  here  upon  any  discussion 
of  these  systems  or  even  an  enumera- 
tion of  the  hundreds  of  Mohammedan 
sects,  but  it  is  necessary  to  remember 
that,  whatever  one  may  think  of  the 
Koran,  it  plays  about  the  same  part  in 
Islam  as  that  of  the  Old  Testament  in 
modern  Judaism.  It  is  the  sacred  book, 
but  not  the  source  of  either  the  beliefs 
or  the  morals,  of  the  people. 

In  deciding  what  is  essential  to  a  reli- 
gion it  is  always  desirable  to  have  the  tes- 
timony  of  some   one   who    professes    it, 


68  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

and  is  an  authority  recognized  by  his 
co-religionists.  In  this  case  we  have  an 
official  letter,  written  ten  years  ago,  by 
the  Sheik-ul-Islam,  the  highest  author- 
ity possible,  to  a  German  gentleman  who 
had  written  to  him  for  information  as  to 
how  he  could  become  a  Moslem.  I 
quote  all  the  essential  parts  of  this  state- 
ment: 

The  religion  of  Islam  has  for  its  basis  faith  in 
the  unity  of  God  and  the  mission  of  the  Prophet. 
If  you  declare  that  there  is  one  God  and  that 
Mohammed  is  his  prophet,  you  are  a  Mussulman 
and  our  brother,  for  all  true  believers  are 
brethren. 

This  is  a  summary  definition  of  faith.  Now 
let  us  enter  into  its  development.  Man,  who  is 
superior  to  the  other  animals  by  his  intelligence, 
has  been  created  out  of  nothing  to  adore  his 
Creator.  This  adoration  consists  in  honoring 
the  commands  of  God  and  in  sympathizing  with 
his  creatures. 

To  enlighten  men  God  has  sent  the 
prophets  and  the  holy  Koran.  The  great- 
est of  all  the  prophets  was  Mohammed. 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  69 

All  the  prophets  threaten  their  followers  with 
a  Day  of  Judgment.  So  it  is  necessary  to  believe 
that  the  dead  will  rise,  that  they  will  appear  be- 
fore the  tribunal  of  God  to  give  an  account,  that 
the  elect  will  be  sent  to  paradise  and  the  damned 
to  hell.  All  the  acts  of  soldiers  in  a  holy  war 
will  be  considered  as  prayer,  and  the  martyrs 
will  go  to  paradise  without  any  examination 
into  their  lives. 

Moreover,  it  is  necessary  to  accept  as  an  article 
of  faith  that  God  is  the  author  of  both  good  and 
evil.  Consequently  the  believer  ought  to  have 
faith  in  God,  in  his  angels,  in  his  books,  in  his 
prophets,  in  the  last  judgment,  and  to  attribute 
both  good  and  evil  to  the  Divine  Will.  He  who 
professes  thes£  verities  is  a  true  believer,  but  to 
be  a  perfect  believer  it  is  necessary  to  pray  to 
God  and  to  avoid  falling  into  such  sins  as  assas- 
sination, robbery,  adultery,  and  sodomy. 

In  addition  to  the  profession  of  faith  a  good 
Moslem  ought  to  pray  five  times  a  day,  to  give 
away  each  year  one-fortieth  part  of  his  goods, 
to  fast  during  the  month  of  Ramazan,  and  at 
least  once  in  his  life  to  make  the  pilgrimage  to 
Mecca. 

If  a  believer  does  not  conform  to  these  orders 
of  God,  and  does  not  avoid  what  He  forbids,  he 
does  not  for  this  become  an  unbeliever.    He  will 


70  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

be  considered  as  a  sinner,  that  is  to  say,  as  a  be- 
liever who  has  gone  astray,  and  merits,  in  another 
world,  a  provisional  punishment.  He  is  at  the 
disposition  of  God,  who  will  pardon  him  or  con- 
demn him  to  pass  a  certain  period  in  hell,  pro- 
portioned to  his  guilt. 

But  faith  annuls  all  sin.  He  who  accepts 
Islamism  becomes  as  innocent  as  a  new-born 
babe,  and  is  responsible  only  for  the  sins  com- 
mitted after  his  conversion.  A  sinner  who  re- 
pents, and  who  solicits  in  person  the  remission 
of  his  sins,  obtains  the  divine  pardon.  The  only 
exception  is  when  we  have  violated  the  rights  of 
our  neighbor  ;  for  the  servant  of  God  who  can- 
not obtain  justice  in  this  world  will  demand  it 
at  the  last  judgment,  and  God  will  accord  it. 
To  avoid  this  responsibility  we  must  obtain  an  ac- 
quittance from  the  person  wronged  before  we  die. 

There  are  no  priests,  no  clergy,  no 
mediators  between  God  and  man,  in  the 
faith  of  Islam.  Only  the  religious  cere- 
monies are  subordinate  to  the  will  of  the 
Caliph  and  Sultan,  and  "  obedience  to 
his  orders  is  one  of  the  most  important 
of  religious  duties." 

One  of  the    things   to    which    every    Moslem 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  71 

ought  to  be  very  attentive  is  integrity  of  char- 
acter. Such  vices  as  pride,  presumption,  ego- 
tism, and  severity  do  not  befit  a  Moslem.  To 
revere  the  great  and  to  compassionate  the  small 
are  precepts  of  Islam. 

Any  one  who  will  compare  this  plain 
official  statement  with  the  glowing  pages 
of  Syed  Ameer  Aali's  "  Life  and  Teach- 
ing of  Mohammed"  will  realize  how 
difficult  it  is  for  a  student  only  of  books 
to  form  a  correct  conception  of  what 
Mohammedanism  really  is;  for  no  one 
doubts  that  Ameer  Aali's  book  is  per- 
fectly honest,  and  that  he  conceives  it 
possible  to  realize  his  conception  of 
Islam ;  but,  unfortunately,  he  represents 
only  a  small  sect,  and  reaches  his  conclu- 
sions by  ignoring  most  of  what  is  re- 
corded of  the  Prophet  in  the  lives  and 
traditions  which  other  Mohammedans 
receive.  He  himself  recognizes  the  fact 
that  existing  Mohammedanism  does  not 
at  all  resemble  his  ideal,  either  in  theory 
or  practice  (page  284). 


72  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

That  Mohammed  was  an  inspired 
prophet  of  God  all  his  followers  agree, 
though  some  deny  that  there  was  any- 
thing supernatural  in  his  inspiration  and 
arbitrarily  reject  most  of  the  traditions. 
Nearly  all,  however,  go  to  the  other  ex- 
treme— make  him  the  first  created  spirit 
and  his  life  miraculous  from  the  dawn  of 
creation  to  the  present  day.  The  ques- 
tion what  his  life  and  character  really 
were  is  a  study  by  itself,  and  we  cannot 
enter  upon  it  here.  The  life  and  char- 
acter which  determine  the  nature  of 
Mohammedanism  are  those  which  appear 
in  the  traditions  and  in  the  earlier  biog- 
raphies. While  there  is  a  bright  side 
to  them  and  they  exhibit  many  noble 
qualities,  they  are  not  conformed  to 
Christian  ideas  of  morality,  and  there 
are  chapters,  even  in  the  Koran,  refer- 
ring to  acts  which  could  be  excused  to 
his  own  people  only  by  a  revelation  from 
God.  But  there  is  nothing  anywhere  to 
justify  the   conclusion   that   Mohammed 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  73 

himself  doubted  the  reality  of  his  mis- 
sion as  a  prophet  called  to  preach  the 
being  and  unity  of  God.  That  he  be- 
lieved this  truth  himself,  that  he  was 
even  ready  to  die  for  it,  and  that  he  held 
it  to  the  end,  I  have  no  doubt.  And 
this  is  the  central  thought  of  Mohammed- 
anism— the  one  uppermost  in  the  minds 
of  all  Moslems — that  there  is  one  Eter- 
nal, Almighty,  Omnipresent,  Personal 
God,  who  is  the  special  friend  and  pro- 
tector of  all  true  believers.  God  is  in 
all  their  thoughts.  He  is  everywhere 
and  in  everything.  Whatever  is  done, 
he  does  it.  Whatever  is  known,  he 
knows  it.  There  is  no  limit  to  his  wis- 
dom or  power.  There  is  no  perfection 
which  he  does  not  possess.  He  has 
ninety-nine  names,  each  representing 
some  divine  attribute,  but  the  one  most 
often  used  is  the  All-Merciful.  To 
those  who  confess  his  being  and  unity 
and  recognize  Mohammed  as  his  prophet, 
he  is  always  long-suffering  and  merciful. 


74  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

To  all  others  he  is  a  consuming  fire  from 
which  there  is  no  possible  escape  in  this 
world  or  the  next.  He  is  their  implaca- 
ble enemy. 

The  character  of  any  religion  may  be 
tested  by  its  conception  of  God  and  its 
teaching  as  to  the  nature  of  man.  In 
this  second  respect  also,  Mohammedan- 
ism seems,  at  first  sight,  to  be  at  one 
with  Christianity.  It  teaches  that  man 
is  a  sinner,  weak,  corrupt,  and  absolutely 
dependent  upon  God's  mercy  for  salva- 
tion. With  these  two  great  truths  the 
Mohammedan  mystic  sometimes  rises  to 
the  highest  and  most  spiritual  concep- 
tions of  God,  and  aspires  to  a  life  swal- 
lowed up  in  him.  But  if  we  examine 
these  doctrines  more  closely,  we  find 
that  the  orthodox  and  common  belief, 
based  upon  the  life  and  traditions  of  the 
Prophet,  gives  us  a  very  different  concep- 
tion of  both  God  and  man  from  that 
found  in  the  New  Testament.  The  God 
of  Mohammedanism  is  an  ideal  Oriental 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  75 

despot  magnified  to  infinity.      The  con- 
ception is  not  wanting  in  grandeur.     All 
that   Arabic    poetry    could   do   to    exalt 
him  has  been  done.      Every  perfection 
which  it  could  conceive  was  attributed  to 
him.      Still   he   is   an   absolute   Oriental 
monarch — all-powerful,  all-wise,  all-mer- 
ciful   towards    his    loyal    subjects,    but 
wreaking  vengeance  on  all  his  adversa- 
ries— above    all    law,    and    infinitely   re- 
moved from  even  the  highest  of  his  offi- 
cials.    Whatever  he  does  or  commands 
is  right  because  he  wills  it.     What    he 
hates  is  not  sin,  but  rebellion.      He  may 
or  may  not  punish  other  offences,  for  he 
is  all-merciful,  but  to  deny  his   unity  or 
his  prophet  is   unpardonable.      For  this 
there    is   nothing  but   eternal   fire.      As 
there  is  no  right  or  wrong  except  as  he 
wills  it,  there  is  no  true  sense  in  which 
he   can   be   called  holy.       Nor  can  it  be 
said  that  he  loves  righteousness.      What 
he  loves  is   submission  to  his  will,  and 
this  is  the  highest  virtue  known   to   Mo- 


76  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

hammedanism.  It  is  what  gives  it  its 
name — Islam,  which  means  submission. 
Between  God  and  man  there  is  no  kin- 
ship, nothing  in  common.  He  is  not 
our  Father  and  we  are  not  his  children. 
To  use  this  expression  as  Christians  do 
is  blasphemy.  If  we  are  true  believers, 
we  are  his  sheep ;  if  not,  we  are  wolves. 
Consequently  the  idea  of  the  incarnation 
of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  is  not  only  blas- 
phemous, but  absurd  and  incomprehen- 
sible. Whatever  the  Christian  knows  of 
God  through  the  Incarnation  is  unknown 
to  the  Moslem. 

The  Mohammedan  conception  of  the 
nature  of  man  is  fatalistic.  It  does  not 
push  fatalism  to  its  logical  conclusion  and 
deny  the  reality  of  sin.  The  Prophet 
speaks  of  himself  as  a  sinner  depend- 
ent on  divine  mercy,  although  this  is 
explained  away  by  his  followers  as  only 
a  figure  of  speech.  But  while  sin,  pun- 
ishment, and  the  pains  of  hell  occupy  a 
large  place  in  the  Koran  and  the  tradi- 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  77 

tions,  while  so  much  is  said  of  the  need 
of  divine  mercy,  still  the  Moslem  psy- 
chology is  fatalistic,  and  the  people  look 
upon  sin  rather  as  a  misfortune  than  a 
crime.  The  Moslem  makes  no  distinc- 
tion between  the  sensibilities  and  the 
will,  and  does  not  admit  that  he  can  re- 
sist or  control  his  desires.  He  may 
avoid  temptation,  but  he  cannot  resist  it. 
God  has  made  him  weak,  and  hung  his 
fate  upon  his  neck.  What  can  he  do  ? 
If  God  has  made  him  a  Christian,  Jew, 
or  idolater,  he  will  go  to  hell  forever, 
however  he  may  live  in  this  world.  This 
is  his  fate.  If  he  is  a  Moslem,  he  will 
ultimately  go  to  paradise,  whatever  his 
character.  It  is  God's  will.  For  one 
born  a  Moslem  there  is  no  place  for  con- 
version or  regeneration.  Man  has  no 
will  to  be  changed.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  an  eternal  principle  of  right. 
There  is  only  the  arbitrary  will  of  God. 
Sin  is  disregard  of  God's  law.  He  may 
punish  it  or  not  as  he  pleases.     The  idea 


78  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

that  sin  can  corrupt  and  destroy  the 
soul  of  a  Moslem,  or  that  character  is 
fixed  forever  by  our  own  act,  is  absurd. 
It  is  not  salvation  from  sin  that  a  man 
needs,  but  salvation  from  punishment. 
This  depends  on  the  will  of  God.  As 
there  is  no  necessity  for  regeneration,  so 
there  is  none  for  an  atonement,  though 
the  Moslem  makes  much  of  the  advocacy 
of  the  Prophet.  Christ  was  a  great 
prophet,  but  in  no  sense  the  Saviour  or 
Redeemer  of  the  world.  He  did  not  die 
for  the  world,  for  the  very  good  reason 
that  he  did  not  die  at  all,  but  was  taken 
up  to  heaven,  while  one  like  him  was 
crucified.  When  a  Moslem  feels  the 
burden  of  sin,  he  feels  it  as  a  debt,  and 
asks  himself  what  good  work  he  can  do 
to  offset  it,  or  comforts  himself  with  the 
thought  that  the  Great  King  is  too  rich 
and  merciful  to  press  a  poor,  weak,  but 
loyal  subject  for  payment. 

These  brief  statements    are    sufficient 
to  show  that  the  Moslem  conception  of 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS      •      79 

man  is  the  natural  complement  of  its 
conception  of  God.  While  not  abso- 
lutely fatalistic,  it  regards  sin  as  a  natu- 
ral weakness,  and  character  as  a  matter 
of  fate  rather  than  the  effect  of  the 
choice  of  good  or  evil.  Taken  together, 
these  two  conceptions  embody  what  is 
essential  in  the  orthodox  faith  of  Islam, 
and  they  are  doctrines  easy  to  be  propa- 
gated, especially  when  championed  by 
a  conquering  race.  It  does  not  require 
much  mental  effort  to  comprehend 
them,  and  their  acceptance  does  not  ne- 
cessitate, any  change  of  character;  while, 
at  the  same  time,  everything  is  promised 
to  the  convert  which  the  soul  demands 
— perfect  immunity  for  all  past  sin,  the 
special  favor  and  protection  of  an  om- 
nipotent God  and  whatever  man  can  de- 
sire in  another  world,  while  his  instinct 
for  worship  is  satisfied  by  an  elaborate 
ceremonial  code. 

The  ethical  code  of  Islam  is  essentially 
that  of  the  Old  Testament,  modified  in 


So  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

some  respects  by  the  traditions  of  the 
life  of  the  Prophet  and  by  the  philoso- 
phy of  Hanifa  and  the  other  Imams. 
In  practice  it  is  also  modified  by  the 
Moslem  conception  of  the  nature  of  man 
and  by  the  fact  that  the  ideal  man  of 
Islam  is  Mohammed.  Whatever  he  is 
supposed  to  have  done  or  approved  is 
worthy  of  imitation.  It  is  also  peculiar 
in  that  it  makes  a  broad  distinction  be- 
tween the  duties  which  Moslems  owe  to 
each  other  and  those  which  they  owe 
to  unbelievers.  As  the  Moslem  rejects 
the  fatherhood  of  God,  so  he  denies  the 
brotherhood  of  man.  All  true  believers 
are  brethren;  all  others  are  dogs.  If 
they  quietly  submit  to  Moslem  rule,  pay 
tribute,  make  themselves  useful,  and  are 
good  dogs,  they  are  to  be  tolerated  and 
treated  with  kindness;  otherwise  the 
men  are  to  be  killed  and  the  women  and 
children  sold  as  slaves  (Koran,  Sura 
IX.).  This  distinction  is  elaborated  in 
the  works  of  Hanifa,  which  are  the  prin- 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  81 

cipal  study  of  the  Softas.  There  are,  of 
course,  many  Moslems,  like  Ameer  Aali, 
whose  relations  with  Christians  are  such 
that  they  have  no  sympathy  with  this 
orthodox  view. 

The  working  of  this  principle  has  been 
illustrated  by  the  plunder  and  massacre 
of  the  Armenians  during  the  past  two 
years  in  Turkey.  It  has  been  done  in 
the  name  of  the  Prophet,  with  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  Caliph,  by  the  hands  of  Mos- 
lems, who  have  gone  from  the  mosque  to 
the  massacre  believing  that  they  were 
doing  God's  will.  At  the  same  time  a 
laree  number  of  Turks  have  condemned 
the  massacres,  and  have  done  all  that 
they  could  to  defend  the  lives  of  the 
Armenians.  Tens  of  thousands  of  Ar- 
menian lives  have  been  saved  in  this 
way,  and  some  distinguished  Ulema 
have  declared  that  neither  the  massacres 
nor  the  forced  conversions  could  be  jus- 
tified. This  difference  does  not  arise 
from  any  doubt  as  to  the  principle  in- 
6 


82  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

volved,  but  from  a  question  of  fact.  If 
the  whole  Armenian  nation  is  to  be  con- 
sidered in  a  state  of  rebellion  against  the 
Caliph,  then  all  that  has  been  done  has 
been  strictly  in  accord  with  the  teaching 
of  Islam.  I  have  met  no  Turk  who 
held  any  other  opinion.  But  if  only  a 
few  individuals  have  been  in  rebellion, 
then  there  is  no  justification  for  the 
plunder  and  slaughter  of  thousands  of 
innocent  and  submissive  people,  even  if 
they  were  unbelievers.  It  is  on  this 
ground  that  they  have,  in  many  cases, 
been  protected  by  pious  Moslems. 

The  specific  duties  which  a  perfect 
Mussulman  owes  to  God  and  his  breth- 
ren, and  the  special  sins  which  he  is  to 
avoid,  are  stated  in  the  letter  of  the 
Sheik-ul-Islam.  The  duties  are  prayer, 
alms,  fasting,  pilgrimage,  and,  in  case  of 
need,  holy  war;  in  general  to  obey  the 
commands  of  God  and  compassionate 
his  creatures,  to  revere  the  great  and  pity 
the  weak.      He  should  avoid  such  sins  as 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  83 

assassination,  robbery,  adultery,  sodomy, 
pride,  presumption,  egotism,  and  harsh- 
ness. The  Koran  says:  "  God  promises 
his  mercy  and  a  brilliant  recompense  to 
those  who  add  good  works  to  their 
faith.'  Omer  Nessefi  says:  "It  is  an 
indispensable  obligation  for  every  Mos- 
lem to  practise  virtue  and  avoid  vice, 
i.e.,  all  that  is  contrary  to  religion,  law, 
humanity,  good  manners,  and  the  duties 
of  society.  He  ought  especially  to  guard 
against  deception,  lying,  slander,  and 
abuse  of  his  neighbor.'  In  practice 
there  are  certainly  many  Moslems  who 
try  to  observe  these  precepts,  who  fear 
God,  and  in  their  dealings  with  men, 
even  with  unbelievers,  are  honest,  truth- 
ful, and  benevolent,  who  are  temperate 
in  the  gratification  of  their  desires,  and 
cultivate  a  self-denying  spirit,  of  whose 
sincere  desire  to  do  right  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  But  the  average  Moslem,  within 
my  observation,  is  much  more  concerned 
with  the  formal  than  the  spiritual  side  of 


84  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

his  religion.  This  is  also  the  testimony 
of  Ameer  Aali.  He  says,  "  The  Mos- 
lems of  the  present  day  have  made 
themselves  the  slaves  of  opportunism 
and  outward  observance." 

Volumes  have  been  written  on  points 
in  Mohammedanism  which  I  have  not 
touched,  but  which  undoubtedly  make 
up  the  greater  part  of  the  life  and 
thought  of  the  majority  of  Moslems. 
The  speculative  theology  and  philosophy 
of  Mohammedanism,  though  now  some- 
what antiquated  in  relation  to  modern 
thought,  covers  as  wide  a  field  as  that  of 
Thomas  Aquinas,  and  is  the  basis  of  the 
teaching  in  the  schools.  The  common 
people  get  their  religious  education  from 
the  lives  and  traditions  of  the  Prophet, 
which  are  full  of  curious  and  fantastic 
legends  of  the  times  of  the  earlier  proph- 
ets as  well  as  of  the  delights  of  para- 
dise and  the  sufferings  of  hell.  The 
dervishes  and  their  secret  teaching  are  a 
study  by  themselves.      Then  there  are 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  85 

great  moral  questions,  such  as  slavery, 
polygamy,  divorce,  and  holy  war,  which 
might  be  discussed  at  length.  But  my 
object  has  been  to  present  only  such 
points  as  all  orthodox  Moslems  regard 
as  essential  to  their  faith,  without  con- 
troversy or  any  more  of  comment  and 
explanation  than  seemed  necessary  to  a 
right  understanding  of  them. 


V 
BRAHMANISM 

By  Charles  R.  Lanman 
Professor  of  Sanskrit,  Harvard  University 

It  is  a  cheering  sign  of  the  times  that 
we  are  beginning  to  quit  prejudice  and 
are  learning  to  look  outward.  We  adopt 
a  ballot-law  from  Australia  simply  be- 
cause it  makes  for  political  righteous- 
ness; we  waste  no  time  to  inquire,  like 
Nathanael,  "  Can  there  any  good  thing 
come  out  of"  that  whilome  limbo  of 
deported  convicts  ?  And,  now,  at  last, 
in  religion,  as  well  as  in  politics,  we  are 
ready  to  go  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  if 
so  be  we  may  find  God's  light  and  truth, 
and  to  take  it  at  the  hands  of  men  whom 
we  once  scrupled  not  to  call  benighted 
heathen.      "  God,   who  at  sundry  times 

86 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  87 

and  in  divers  manners  spake  in  time  past 
unto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets  " — such 
is  the  splendid  exordium  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews.  To  the  Hebrews, 
"prophets"  meant  naught  else  than 
Hebrew  prophets — small  wonder.  But 
to  St.  Paul — what  would  the  meaning 
be  to  him,  if  we  could  question  him 
about  it  to-day  ?  He  surely  would  be 
the  last  to  limit  it  to  the  saints  and  sages 
of  a"  chosen  people.'  Nay,  rather,  he 
would  rejoice  to  find  the  accents  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  Greece  or  even  in  India. 

Brahmanism  is  exclusive  rather  than 
proselyting.  It  is  not  a  world-religion ; 
but  we  may  not  on  that  account  deny 
that  it  has  a  message  for  the  world. 
That  message  may  consist  on  the  one 
hand  in  truths  which  its  doctrines  in- 
clude; or  also,  on  the  other,  in  lessons 
and  warnings  which  modern  thinkers  of 
wider  scope  than  any  Hindu,  may  read 
from  its  long  and  often  sad  history. 

The  term   Brahmanism   is  vague,  and 


83  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

forces  us,  even  at  the  outset,  to  some 
prefatory  definition.  The  Vedas  are  the 
sacred  books  of  the  Hindus,  the  oldest 
recorded  documents  of  that  branch  of 
the  human  race  to  which  we  Anglo-Sax- 
ons belong.  For  our  present  purposes, 
the  Vedas  may  be  divided  into  three 
great  strata:  the  Hymns,  the  Brahmanas, 
and  the  Upanishads.  The  Hymns  (often 
called  Veda  in  a  narrower  sense)  are 
the  oldest,  and  in  them  is  reflected  the 
simple  nature-religion  of  a  sturdy,  life- 
loving  people,  the  early  Aryan  Hindus. 
To  them,  the  wind,  the  storm,  the  sun, 
the  fire,  the  waters — each  was  the  mani- 
festation of  a  divine  personality,  of  a 
god  whose  anger  was  to  be  appeased  and 
whose  favor  was  to  be  sought.  The 
worship  is  on  a  give-and-take  basis.  The 
gods  accept  offerings  of  rice  and  butter, 
and  bestow  in  return  rain  and  food,  chil- 
dren and  cattle.  Of  lofty  spiritual  aspi- 
ration there  is  little  in  the  Hymns  of  the 
old  Vedic  religion. 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  89 

The  simple  rites  of  the  fathers  fell 
into  the  hands  of  a  caste  of  priests 
whose  interest  it  was  to  elaborate  the 
rites  into  a  system  so  complex  that  only 
they,  the  professional  sacrificers,  could 
perform  them.  The  ancient  nature- 
worship  was  transformed  into  a  rigid, 
soul-deadening  ritualism  which  is  per- 
haps without  a  parallel.  The  sacrifice 
was  apotheosized  and  invested  with  a 
supernal,  a  god-compelling  power.  This 
second  great  phase  in  the  evolution  of 
religionsMn  India  we  name  Brahmanism 
proper;  the  literature  in  which  it  is  re- 
flected we  call  the  Brahmanas,  and  they 
seem  to  represent  Indian  thought  at 
its  lowest  ebb.  With  it  came  a  pro- 
found transformation  of  the  Indian  char- 
acter. The  life-loving  strenuousness 
of  the  olden  time  has  given  place-  to 
pessimistic  quietism.  The  belief  in  the 
transmigration  of  souls  has  become  an 
established  conviction,  not  of  the  learned 
only,    but    of  the  lowest  and    meanest. 


qo  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

We  may  liken  the  time  to  the  hour 
of  sultry  stillness  that  precedes  the 
storm. 

For  at  this  juncture,  probably  in  the 
sixth  century  B.C.,  a  new  era  of  religious 
commotion  began.  Dreamers  and  mys- 
tics, reformers  and  saviours,  seem  to  have 
arisen  on  all  sides  in  Gangesland,  full  of 
new  teachings,  some  lofty,  some  paltry, 
with  which  they  were  to  reclaim  men 
from  the  slough  in  which  they  were 
mired.  Gotama  Buddha  was  one  of  these 
teachers,  the  greatest  and  noblest  per- 
sonality of  all  Indian  history.  Another 
was  Nigantha  Nataputta,  the  founder, 
or  rather  the  reformer,  of  Jainism.  Still 
others  of  lesser  note  are  named  in  the 
Buddhist  Scriptures  as  propounders  of 
various  heresies.  But  next  to  Gotama, 
doubtless  the  greatest  teachers  of  this 
time  were  the  Brahman  theosophists,  men 
like  Shandilya  and  Yajnavalkya,  the  au- 
thors of  the  doctrines  of  the  Upani- 
shads. 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  91 

The  Upanishads1  teach  the  absolute 
identity  of  man  and  God,  of  the  individ- 
ual soul  and  the  Supreme  Spirit,  and  de- 
clare that  only  by  recognition  of  its  true 
nature  can  the  soul  be  released  from 
its  attachment  to  the  world-illusion,  and 
from  the  consequent  round  of  trans- 
migrations. Ignorance  is  the  root  of  all 
sin  and  evil.  Salvation  is  by  knowledge. 
And  accordingly  the  Upanishads  on 
the  one  hand  form  what  the  Hindus 
call  the  "  Knowledge  division  '  of  the 
Vedas,  as  opposed  to  the  old  Hymns 
and  Brahmanas  on  the  other  hand, 
which  they  call  the  V  Work-division.' 
The  relation  is  like  that  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament to  the  Old — only  that  in  India 
the  antithesis  is  not  between  works  and 
faith,  but  between  works  and  knowl- 
edge.    Since  the  Upanishads  are  held  to 

1  The  best  work  extant  in  any  modern  language  of 
Europe  upon  the  Upanishads  is  Paul  Deussen's  trans- 
lation of  them,  with  introductions,  published  lately 
by  Brockhaus  in  Leipsic. 


92  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

be  the  crown  or  capstone  of  all  the 
Vedas,  they  are  called  Vedanta,  literally, 
'  the  end  of  the  Vedas.'  The  doctrines 
of  these  theosophic  treatises  cannot  be 
combined  into  one  coherent  philosophi- 
cal system ;  they  are  too  disconnected, 
contradictory,  and  disorderly.  And  the 
best  proof  of  it  is  that  several  very  di- 
verse systems  of  philosophy  were,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  built  upon  them.  The 
Hindus  admit  six  orthodox  systems,  the 
chief  of  which  are  the  Vedanta  system 
and  the  Sankhya  system.  Here  are 
elaborated,  with  all  the  art  and  the  tech- 
nical skill  of  the  Indian  dialectician,  the 
great  rude  thoughts  of  the  Upanishads. 
To  treat  of  the  systems  is  beyond  the 
scope  of  this  brief  paper. 

Modern  philosophical  critics  may  ad- 
mit or  deny  the  value  of  the  Upanishads 
and  of  the  systems,  as  speculation ;  but 
the  loftiness  and  honesty  of  purpose  of 
these  ancient  teachers  cannot  be  denied. 
They  have  never  lost  sight  of  the  one 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  93 

great  practical  end  of  all  their  teaching, 
the  liberation  of  the  soul.  As  illustra- 
tion may  serve  the  final  sentence  of  a 
famous  Sankhya  book.  The  author  has 
just  concluded  a  long  argument,  which, 
when  turned  from  Sanskrit  into  the 
clearest  English,  is  still  surpassingly  hard 
and  knotty  reading.  Then  follows  his 
simple  but  impressive  climax:  "  Be  all 
my  argument  right,  or  be  all  my  argu- 
ment wrong,  the  ending  of  bondage  to 
the   world   is   the    supreme    aim    of    the 

The  object  of  the  Upanishads,  then, 
is  the  search  after  God.  The  riddle  of 
existence  is  scarcely  broached  in  the 
oldest  Veda.  To  the  mystics  of  the 
Upanishads,  the  origination  of  the  uni- 
verse out  of  nothing  is  the  question  of 
questions;  and  if  it  proved  as  insoluble 
to  them  as  to  us,  the  grappling  with  it 
led  at  least  to  their  one  great  contribu- 
tion to  human  thought,  the  identity  of 
the  subject  with  the  object,  of  man  with 


94  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

God,  of  the  Atman  with  Brahman;  in 
short,  to  the  idealistic  monism  of  the 
Vedanta  system,  and  the  supreme  con- 
ception of  the  All-soul. 

The  word  atman  originally  meant 
breath,  and  so  the  principle  of  life,  the 
soul,  the  innermost  self.  A  picturesque 
myth  in  one  of  the  oldest  Upanishads 
na*iVely  represents  the  Atman  as  a  pri- 
meval being  of  human  likeness,  and  all 
the  creatures  as  proceeding  from  him  by 
his  creative  act.  Little  as  the  gain  from 
all  this  may  be,  it  is  yet  the  starting-point 
of  the  spiritual  pantheism  of  India.  It 
would  be  giving  an  epitome  of  Indian 
theology  to  explain  the  famous  word 
brahman.  At  first  it  meant  the  power 
of  devotion,  of  prayer,  and  especially  of 
the  sacrifice;  and,  finally,  with  the  inor- 
dinate exaggeration  of  the  sacrifice  (as 
hinted  above)  into  a  power  upon  which 
even  the  gods  were  conceived  as  depend- 
ing, Brahman  came  to  be  the  power 
which   is  behind   both  the  gods  and  the 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  95 

world,  the  eternal  principle  of  all  exist- 
ence. 

The  acme  of  these  doctrines  is  reached 
in  the  fusion  of  the  originally  subjec- 
tive Atman  with  the  objective  Brahman 
into  one  supreme  entity,  transcending  all 
limitations  of  space,  time,  and  causality. 
The  soul  is  not  different  from  Brahm, 
because  there  is  nothing  existent  outside 
of  Brahm.  The  soul  is  not  a  transfor- 
mation of  Brahm,  because  Brahm  is  un- 
changeable. The  soul  is  not  a  part  of 
Brahm,  because  whatever  has  parts  is 
transitory  and  suffers  change,  and  Brahm, 
being  unchangeable,  can  therefore  have 
no  parts.  In  short,  then,  the  kernel  of 
the  whole  doctrine  is  the  direct  imma- 
nency of  God,  an  assumption  unproved, 
and  yet  of  profound  practical  import. 

The  central  point  of  all  this  teaching 
is  illustrated  in  a  hundred  ways,  naive 
and  picturesque.  We  may  cite  one 
(Deussen  thinks  it  the  oldest)  passage  in 
which  the  doctrine  is  set  forth.      "  Ver- 


96  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

ily  the  universe  is  Brahm :  whose  sub- 
stance is  spirit;  whose  body  is  life; 
whose  form  is  light ;  whose  purpose  is 
truth  ;  whose  essence  is  infinity.  This  is 
my  spirit  (or  atman)  within  my  heart, 
smaller  than  a  grain  of  rice,  qr  a  barley- 
corn, or  a  grain  of  mustard-seed;  smaller 
than  a  grain  of  millet,  or  even  than  a 
husked  grain  of  millet.  It  is  greater 
than  the  earth,  greater  than  the  sky, 
greater  than  the  heaven,  greater  than  all 
the  worlds.  The  all-working,  all-wishing, 
all-smelling,  all-tasting  one,  that  em- 
braceth  the  universe,  that  is  silent,  un- 
troubled— that  is  my  spirit  within  my 
heart;  that  is  Brahm.  Thereunto,  when 
I  go  hence,  shall  I  attain.  Thus  spake 
Shandilya. " 

The  chief  end  of  man  is  salvation,  that 
is,  liberation  from  the  bonds  of  death 
and  rebirth,  the  endless  rounds  of  trans- 
migration. This  liberation  is  effected, 
not  by  faith,  but  by  knowledge,  by  the 
recognition  of    the  absolute  identity  of 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  97 

my  innermost  being  with  God.  What 
now  is  the  way  to  this  knowledge  ?  For 
on  it  we  must  find  the  basis  of  the  prac- 
tical ethics  of  the  Vedanta.  The  fallen 
state  is  the  illusion  of  separation  from 
God,  and  this  illusion  is  fed  by  the  de- 
sires and  lusts  of  the  world.  Morality, 
therefore,  is  primarily  rather  negative 
than  positive — the  renunciation  of  the 
lust  of  the  world,  of  wife,  children,  pos- 
sessions, in  short,  of  all  the  great  activi- 
ties of  life. 

So  far»as  theories  go,  there  is  spiritual 
truth  on  both  sides,  for  Christian  and 
Hindu  alike,  to  take  and  to  give.  To 
Hindu  mysticism  and  to  Christian  mys- 
ticism alike  are  common  the  most  gro- 
tesque fancies  and  the  deepest  truths ;  in 
both  are  elements  which  may  prove  to  be 
of  value  for  our  religious  life.  It  may 
be  too  that  some  of  the  Indian  theories 
concerning  personality  when  dissociated 
from  Indian  pessimism  shall  yet  in  these 
last  days  bear  fruit.  Did  the  Eastern 
7 


g8  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

mystic  so  lose  himself  in  the  beatific 
vision  of  God  as  to  have  little  thought 
for  his  fellows?  Possibly;  but,  per 
contra,  are  not  we  so  feverishly  asserting 
our  individuality  in  all  the  details  of  life 
that  we  never  quit  the  pin-fold  in  which 
we  are  confined  and  pestered  ?  May  not 
each  of  us  learn  from  the  other  ? 

There   is    a    Sanskrit   work   called  the 
"  Garland   of  Questions  and   Answers,' 
in  which   some   Hindu  Nicodemus  seeks 
to    know   what  it  is  to   be  born  of  the 
Spirit.      His  question  is: 

What  lack  I  yet  ?     What  for  my  soul  remaineth 
To  know,  that  all  these  longings  then  may  cease  ? 

And  the  answer: 

Salvation,  wherein  simplest  soul  attaineth 
The  knowledge  that  doth  end  in  perfect  peace. 

And  again : 

What   must  I  know,  the  which,  when   compre- 
hending, 
Their  secret  thought  from  all  the  worlds  I  wrest  ? 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  99 

And  the  answer : 

On  all-embracing  Brahm  thy  spirit  bending, — 
That  know,  Prime  Form  of  Being,  Manifest. 

And  we  hustling  Occidentals  marvel  and 
say,  "  How  can  these  things  be  ? '  Mys- 
tical perhaps  they  are  to  our  Western 
temper  of  mind;  but  are  we  quite  sure 
that  our  temper  is  wholly  right,  and  the 
only  right  one  ?  In  India  as  well  as  in 
Palestine  was  the  warning  given:  "  Ex- 
cept ye  become  as  little  children." 

As  fox  the  Upanishads  in  practice,  we 
little  realize  in  the  Occident  how  holy 
and  saintly  have  been  the  lives  of  thou- 
sands of  these  quiet  Vedantists.  And 
even  in  characterizing  renunciation  as  a 
negative  virtue,  there  may  be  a  touch  of 
injustice  and  error.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  we  are  right  in  our  ideals  of  human 
progress,  it  is  hard  to  see  how  they  have 
been  furthered  by  quietism.  "  I  am 
come,'  said  the  greatest  of  teachers, 
"  that   they   might    have    life,   and    that 


ioo  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

they  might  have  it  more  abundantly.' 
But  even  here  again  let  me  warn  against 
over-confidence  in  the  infallibility  of  the 
Occidental  standards  by  which  we  would 
measure  the  fulness  of  life. 

And  it  is  well  to  remember  here  that 
— despite  all  the  diversity  of  dogmas 
and  of  metaphysical  conceptions,  whether 
of  Buddhism  or  Confucianism,  whether  of 
Christianity  or  the  Vedanta — that  the 
way  of  peace  for  all  is  by  morality  and 
not  by  immorality,  that  the  ethical  ideal 
is  essentially  the  same  the  world  over, 
that  virtue  is  everywhere  lovely,  or,  in 
mystic  phrase,  that  she  can  quicken  our 
spiritual  sense  until  we  catch  the  unheard 
music  of  the  spheres. 

She  can  teach  ye  how  to  climb 
Higher  than  the  sphery  chime. 

A  change  of  attitude  towards  non- 
Christian  religions  has  undoubtedly  be- 
gun within  Christendom.  It  is  a  step  in 
advance,   clear   and    great.      Among  its 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  101 

immediate  results  there  may  indeed  be 
much  unintelligible  dabbling  in  Bud- 
dhism and  sundry  other  "  isms  "  of  the 
East,  and  the  growth  therefrom  of  an 
irreverent  and  weak  and  flabby  eclecti- 
cism ;  but  these  are  transient  extrava- 
gances. The  new  habit  of  mind,  if  only 
it  be  informed  with  honesty  and  humil- 
ity, is  an  essential  preliminary  to  the 
best  general  religious  progress.  It  is 
something  which  the  leaders  of  religious 
life  and  thought  should  welcome  as  a 
glorious,  an  inspiring  opportunity. 


VI 
CHRISTIANITY 

By  Lyman  Abbott 

The  object  of  this  series  of  articles  is 
to  point  out  what  is  distinctive  in  each 
one  of  the  great  religions  of  the  world. 
What  is  thus  distinctive  in  Christianity  is 
Jesus  Christ.  Other  religions  are  greater 
than  their  founders.  Confucianism  is 
greater  than  Confucius,  Buddhism  than 
Siddartha,  Judaism  than  Moses,  Moham- 
medanism than  Mohammed.  But  Christ 
is  greater  than  Christianity ;  the  Founder 
is  greater  than  the  religion  which  he 
founded.  Its  accretions  are  corruptions; 
it  might  almost  be  said  that  its  develop- 
ment is  degeneracy.  The  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  is  greater  than  the  greatest  of 

the  creeds ;  the  Lord's  Supper  is  sublimer 

102 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  103 

in  its  simplicity  than  the  High  Mass  in  its 
elaboration;  the  message  and  ministry 
of  the  twelve,  with  the  Master  as  their 
leader,  are  larger  events  in  history  than 
all  the  complicated  ecclesiasticism  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  with  its  clerical  orders  and 
sub-orders. 

I.  In  Christianity  the  principles  of  the 
religion  are  exemplified  and  the  spirit 
of  the  religion  is  embodied  in  a  Person. 
The  whole  duty  of  the  Christian  is 
summed  up  in  the  Master's  command, 
11  Follow  me.'  The  whole  creed  of  the 
Christian  is  summed  up  in  "  Ye  believe 
in  God,  believe  also  in  me.'  Confucius 
gave  precepts  whose  value  is  wholly  in- 
dependent of  the  man  who  gave  them ; 
Siddartha  is  a  shadow  cast  upon  the 
clouds — no  one  can  tell  how  much  it  re- 
sembles any  historical  original ;  Moses  is 
avowedly  only  the  interpreter  of  a  law 
whose  divine  authority  derives  no  sanc- 
tion from  the  human  law-giver;  Moham- 
med  is  a  true  prophet  of  monotheism, 


104  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

but  no  reader  of  these  pages  would  wish 
to  emulate  his  life.  But  Christ  is  a  living 
Person,  whose  historical  reality  skepti- 
cism itself  no  longer  doubts,  whose  au- 
thoritative declarations  as  a  faithful  and 
true  witness  add  to  the  sum  of  human 
knowledge,  and  whose  life  and  character 
are  both  greater  and  more  luminous  than 
any  report  of  his  precepts  which  his  im- 
mediate followers  have  preserved  for  us. 
Are  we  perplexed  as  to  the  meaning  of 
any  of  his  directions  ?  we  have  but  to 
ask  an  interpretation  of  his  life.  "  But 
I   say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies.' 

If  one  smite  thee  on  the  one  cheek, 
turn  to  him  the  other  also.'  His  own 
treatment  of  Judas  Iscariot,  his  own  en- 
durance of  shame  and  insult  in  the  court 
of  Caiaphas,  make  the  enigma  clear  to  us. 

And  not  only  clear;  also  possible, 
"  *  Love  your  enemies; '  that  is  not  hu- 
man nature" — this  protest  dies  away, 
half  uttered,  upon  our  lips  when  we  see 
what  this  Man  has  done  in  attestation  of 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  105 

the  possibilities  of  human  nature.  Con- 
fucianism, Buddhism,  Mosaism,  all  pre- 
sent splendid  ideals  of  life ;  Christianity 
differs  from  them  less  in  the  ideals  pre- 
sented than  in  the  transcendent  fact  that 
it  presents  them  realized.  The  divine 
life  is  no  longer  a  poet's  dream  or  a 
prophet's  ecstatic  vision  of  some  future 
celestial  glory.  The  kingdom  of  God 
has  come  down  to  earth.  The  highest 
hope  of  the  idealist  is  no  longer  an 
impossible  hope ;  it  is  a  realized  fact  in 
human  history.  Christ  is  the  ideal.  To 
be  a  Christian  is  to  be  Christlike ;  there 
is  nothing  higher;  when,  if  ever,  all 
humanity  becomes  Christlike,  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  will  have  come  on  earth ; 
there  is  nothing  beyond. 

Thus  Christianity  is  at  once  idealism 
and  realism  in  religion  combined.  It 
commends  nothing  which  it  does  not 
demonstrate  possible.  When  Christ  asks 
his  followers,  "  Can  ye  drink  of  the  cup 
that  I  drink  of,  and  be  baptized  with  the 


106  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

baptism  I  am  baptized  with?'  inspired 
by  his  example,  and  still  more  by  his 
persuasive  personality,  they  reply,  "  We 
can;  "  and  he  responds,  "  Ye  shall.'  It 
is  this  quality  of  realism  in  the  religion 
of  Christ — a  religion  presented  by  its 
Founder,  not  as  an  impossible  ideal,  but 
as  a  reality,  not  as  a  vision  of  a  hoped- 
for  future,  but  as  the  record  of  un- 
doubted history — which  constitutes  the 
first  distinguishing  mark  of  Christianity. 
Confucianism,  summoning  its  adherents 
to  pay  veneration  to  an  idealized  past, 
Buddhism,  bidding  its  adherents  dream 
of  an  unrealized  future,  keep  their  vota- 
ries unchanged  from  century  to  century. 
Christ,  calling  the  Christian  to  an  ideal 
which  he  has  realized  in  his  own  life, 
responds  to  every  failure  and  every  con- 
sequent discouragement,  "  You  can,  for 
I  have.  What  I  have  done  you  can  do ; 
what  I  am  you  can  become.' 

The  followers  of  Christ,  thus  inspired 
by  an  ideal  realized  in  history,  rise  from 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  107 

every  defeat  with  a  new  hope  of  victory 
in  their  hearts,  and  go  forward  from  every 
victory  inspired  to  attempt  new  achieve- 
ment. When  they  have  abolished  slav- 
ery, they  immediately  combine  to  fit 
the  enfranchised  for  industrial  freedom. 
When  they  have  abolished  private  war, 
they  rest  not,  but  gather  their  forces 
together  to  abolish  international  war. 
They  are  not  discouraged  in  the  first  case 
because  the  negro  population  grows 
faster  than  the  schools,  nor  in  the  second 
because  imperial  Europe,  with  fanatical 
conservatism,  persists  in  retaining  a  mili- 
tarism inherited  from  pagan  Rome. 
Nor  does  the  fact  that  they  are  a  minor- 
ity, even  in  the  community  which  calls 
itself  Christian,  abate  their  courage;  for 
they  look  back  and  see  what  One  accom- 
plished with  but  twelve  followers,  and 
one  of  them  a  traitor.  It  is  true  that 
there  is  industrial  servitude  in  our  work- 
shops as  well  as  in  the  fields  of  China, 
that  there  are  prostitutes  in  Christian  as 


108  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

well  as  in  Hindu  cities,  social  caste  in 
democratic  America  as  well  as  in  Brah- 
manical  India,  the  spirit  of  militarism  in 
Christian  Europe  as  well  as  in  Moham- 
medan Turkey.  But  Christianity  has 
abolished  the  worst  forms  of  industrial 
servitude  and  is  ameliorating  such  as  re- 
main ;  there  are  no  consecrated  prosti- 
tutes in  Christendom  ;  caste  exists  in  spite 
of  religion  in  the  United  States,  because 
of  religion  in  India;  the  spirit  of  the 
Cross,  patiently  if  peacefully,  opposes 
itself  to  that  spirit  of  militarism  which 
the  Crescent  inspires  and  glorifies. 

What  is  true  of  Christianity  as  a  social 
force  is  true  of  it  also  as  an  individual 
life.  Its  history  is  written  in  splendid 
lives.  It  is  the  record,  not  merely  of 
great  thoughts,  but  of  greater  deeds;  it 
is  not  merely  the  vision  of  splendid 
ideals,  but  the  history  of  achievement, 
marred  indeed  by  many  a  failure  and 
many  a  blemish,  but  more  splendid  than 
any  mere  ideal,  because  deeds  are  always 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  109 

more  splendid  than  dreams.  Christian- 
ity is  not  a  history  of  ethical  rules,  theo- 
logical doctrines,  or  ecclesiastical  sys- 
tems ;  it  is  a  history  of  living  men  and 
women ;  not  a  picture  of  piety,  but  the 
biography  of  saints ;  not  a  picture  of 
heroism,  but  a  biography  of  heroes ;  not 
a  picture  of  patience,  but  a  biography  of 
brave  men  and  women  bearing  the  world's 
burdens.  It  is  not  the  history  of  Ro- 
manism and  Lutheranism  and  Puritanism 
and  Wesleyanism  ;  it  is  the  biography  of 
Augustine,  and  William  of  Orange,  and 
John  Hampden,  and  the  Methodist  pio- 
neers. No  other  religion  has  written  its 
history  in  such  achievements  and  such 
biographies.  Christianity  is  an  ideal 
realized  in  the  one  Christ,  and  therefore 
in  process  of  realization  in  Christen- 
dom ;  a  spirit  incarnated  in  the  one  Man, 
and  therefore  in  the  process  of  becoming 
incarnated  in  Humanity. 

II.   This  realism   of  religion,  which  is 
a  distinctive  characteristic  of  Christianity, 


no  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

is  due  to  the  new  power  which  Christian- 
ity confers  upon  mankind,  or,  to  speak 
more  accurately,  to  the  new  revelation 
which  it  affords  of  an  eternal  power. 

That  Christianity  claims  to  confer  such 
new  power  upon  man  is  evident  from  the 
most  casual  reading  of  the  primitive  docu- 
ments. It  is  implied  in  the  declaration 
of  Christ  defining  his  mission:  "  I  have 
come  that  they  might  have  life,  and 
might  have  it  more  abundantly.'  It  is 
affirmed  by  Paul  in  his  definition  of  the 
Gospel  as  "  the  power  of  God  unto  sal- 
vation." It  is  even  more  explicitly  de- 
clared by  John :  "  To  them  gave  he  power 
to  become  the  sons  of  God,  even  to 
them  that  believe  on  his  name.'  But  it 
is  not  only  occasionally  and  incidentally 
claimed  for  Christianity  by  its  first  evan- 
gelists; it  is  the  theme  of  their  teach- 
ing. They  are  not  the  framers  of  a  new 
code  of  rules  for  the  regulation  of  con- 
duct, nor  the  teachers  of  a  new  system 
of  philosophy — though   their   successors 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  in 

in  the  ministry  have  often  been  one  or 
the  other;  they  are  the  heralds  of  a  Per- 
son. To  understand  their  message  we 
must  remember  that  Christianity  came 
to  the  world  as  the  consummation  and 
fulfillment  of  a  precedent  religion.  One 
characteristic  of  the  Jewish  religion  was 
its  forelooking  character.  From  the 
promise  to  Eve  that  her  seed  should  crush 
the  serpent's  head  to  the  prophecy  of 
the  great  Unknown  Prophet  of  the  Exile 
that  the  Suffering  Servant  of  the  Lord 
should  redeem  Israel  out  of  all  his 
troubles,  the  Jewish  people  were  taught 
by  their  prophets  to  look  forward  to  a 
Deliverer  and  a  Deliverance  which  should 
bring  the  kingdom  of  God  on  the  earth. 
Whatever  interpretation  we  may  now 
give  to  these  promises,  there  is  no  ques- 
tion, as  matter  of  history,  that,  in  the 
first  century  of  this  era,  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple were  universally  expecting  the  com- 
ing of  a  Messiah,  an  Anointed  One,  who 
would   fulfill  the  expectation  of    Israel, 


H2  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

and  redeem  the  nation,  if  not  the  world, 
from  its  sorrows.  The  burden  of  the 
preaching  of  the  Apostles  is  that  the 
Messiah  has  come,  and  the  Day  of  Deliv- 
erance is  at  hand.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  load  these  pages  with  quotations  or 
even  with  references.  The  Apostolic 
sermons  reported  in  the  Book  of  Acts 
are  the  earliest  recorded  examples  of 
primitive  preaching.  The  burden  of 
these  sermons  is  always  the  same,  that 
the  Messiah  has  come,  and  that  the  evi- 
dence of  his  Messiahship  is  his  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead.  The  Epistles  of 
Paul  are  probably  the  earliest  writings 
of  the  primitive  Church.  The  burden  of 
these  Epistles  is  always  the  same,  that 
"  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of 
sin  and  death,'  so  that  "  we  are  more 
than  conquerors  through  him  that  loved 
us."  If  we  turn  to  the  teaching  of 
Christ,  we  find  the  same  characteristic. 
At  the  beginning  of  his  ministry,  in  the 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  113 

synagogue  at  Nazareth,  he  reads  from  an 
ancient  prophecy  the  promise  of  One  to 
come  who  will  proclaim  glad  tidings  to 
the  poor,  will  heal  the  broken-hearted, 
will  proclaim  deliverance  to  the  captives 
and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind,  and 
will  lead  forth  into  liberty  those  that  are 
crushed  by  oppression ;  and  he  declares 
that  he  has  come  to  fulfill  this  promise. 
At  the  close  of  his  ministry,  put  under 
solemn  judicial  oath  by  the  high  priest, 
and  asked  if  he  is  the  Messiah,  the  Son 
of  the  Living  God,  he  replies  that  he 
is,  and  seals  this  claim  with  the  surren- 
der of  his  life.  Modern  discovery  has 
made  it  clear  that  the  Fourth  Gospel 
was  written  and  published  early  in  the 
second  century,  if  not  late  in  the  first 
century,  and  it  contains,  in  all  probabil- 
ity, a  report  of  Christ's  life  and  mission 
furnished  by  the  Beloved  Disciple,  if  not 
actually  written  by  him.  But  we  are  not 
left  to  the  Fourth  Gospel  for  evidence 

that  Jesus  claimed  to  be  the  Christ,  the 
8 


H4  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

Anointed  One,  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 
This  claim  is  wrought  into  his  teaching 
concerning  himself  as  recorded  in  the 
Synoptic  Gospels,  into  the  Apostolic 
heralding  of  his  Person  as  recorded  in  the 
Book  of  Acts,  into  the  thought  and  life 
of  the  earliest  churches  as  reflected  in 
the  letters  of  Paul.  The  post-Apostolic 
writings  and  the  very  inscriptions  in  the 
catacombs  illustrate  the  same  claim  of 
primitive  Christianity.  The  earliest 
symbol  of  the  Christians,  used  by  them 
apparently  as  a  sort  of  secret  sign  or 
watchword,  was  a  fish.  This  word  fish 
is  formed  in  the  Greek  of  the  five  letters 
which  for  the  English  reader  we  may 
represent  thus:  I,  Ch,  Th,  U,  S.  Each 
letter  represents  a  word  which  we  may 
represent  in  English  characters  thus: 
Jesous,  Christos,  Theou,  Uios, 
Soter — that  is,  Jesus,  Christ,  of  God 
the  Son,  Saviour.  This  faith  in  a  Person 
who  brought  a  new  life  into  the  world,  a 
new  power  to  men,  an  emancipation,  an 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  115 

enfranchisement,  a  deliverance,  was  the 
creed  of  the  early  Church.  However 
skeptical  one  may  be  concerning  the 
truth  of  this  faith,  one  cannot  doubt  that 
the  faith  existed,  and  was  the  secret  of 
the  Church's  existence. 

As  little  can  it  be  doubted  that  the  world 
sorely  feels  the  need  of  such  a  power. 
Whatever  opinion  the  skeptic  may  enter- 
tain concerning  the  eighth  chapter  of 
Romans,  there  are  few  skeptics  who  will 
doubt  the  seventh  chapter.  "  To  will 
is  present  with  me ;  but  how  to  perform 
that  which  is  good  I  find  not,"  is  the  ex- 
perience of  all  men  who  possess  noble 
ideals".  It  is  only  the  hopelessly  self- 
conceited  man  to  whom  this  declaration 
is  meaningless.  Much  is  said  of  the 
Gospel  as  a  revelation ;  but  we  do  not  so 
much  need  to  have  new  truth  revealed 
to  us  as  new  power  conferred  upon  us. 
It  is  easier  to  see  the  right  than  to  do 
the  right  as  we  see  it.  Our  ideals  may 
be,  and  often  are,  ignoble,  but  they  are 


n6  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

nobler  than  our  lives.  To  transmute 
dreams  into  deeds  is  the  perpetually  un- 
solved problem  of  every  noble  nature. 
That  Christianity  has  conferred  on  all 
its  votaries  the  power  which  man  so 
sorely  needs  no  one  will  claim ;  but  that 
it  has  conferred  on  them  new  moral 
power,  endowing  with  life,  transforming 
the  character,  and  revealed  in  the  con- 
duct, is  abundantly  illustrated  by  its  his- 
tory: in  individual  transformations  like 
those  of  Paul  the  persecutor  into  the 
Apostle,  Augustine  the  roue"  into  the 
saint,  Loyola  the  soldier  into  the  church- 
man, Luther  the  monk  into  the  eman- 
cipator, Bunyan  the  tinker  into  the 
prophet,  Gough  the  drunkard  into  the 
temperance  reformer;  on  a  large  scale,  in 
the  transformation  of  pagan  Rome  into 
Christian  Europe,  and  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  from  the  freebooters  and  pirates  of 
the  eighth  century  into  the  pioneers  of 
civilization  in  the  nineteenth.  It  may, 
indeed,  be  said  that  the  progress  is  very 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  117 

slow,  since  it  has  taken  eighteen  centu- 
ries to  make  out  of  paganism  a  social 
order  so  little  Christianized  as  that  of 
modern  Europe.  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  present  population  of 
Europe  has  been  under  the  influence  of 
Christianity,  not  eighteen  centuries,  but 
one-third  of  a  century.  Progress  is  nec- 
essarily slow  in  a  world  in  which  every 
thirty-three  years  a  new  class  comes  into 
life  to  acquire  afresh  all  its  knowledge 
and  all  its  virtue. 

However  slow  that  progress  may  have 
been,  it  is  certain  that  Christianity  is  the 
only  world-religion  which  is  characterized- 
by  those  transformations  of  individual 
character  which  we  call  conversion,  or 
that  transformation  of  national  character 
which  we  call  progress.  We  hear  much 
of  the  progress  of  humanity;  but  histor- 
ically it  has  been  confined  to  Christen- 
dom ;  the  nineteenth  century  is  much 
glorified,  but  in  China  and  India  the 
nineteenth  century  does  not   differ  from 


n8  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

the  first.  Christianity  appears  to  me 
to  be  the  only  world-religion  which  even 
claims  ability  to  make  such  transforma- 
tions of  character,  to  confer  on  man 
power  to  realize  his  ideals,  to  convert  his 
aspirations  into  achievement.  Neither 
Confucianism,  Judaism,  nor  Mohammed- 
anism can  be  said  even  to  offer  to  man 
an  addition  to  his  powers,  a  reinforce- 
ment of  his  spirit,  and  an  emancipation 
from  his  bondage.  Buddhism,  it  is  true, 
does  offer  a  deliverance;  Buddha  does 
claim  to  be  a  Deliverer  from  the  perpet- 
ual disappointments  of  life.  But,  as 
Professor  Palmer  has  recently  so  clearly 
pointed  out,  Buddhism  prescribes  as  the 
secret  of  deliverance  the  death  of  desire, 
Christianity  proffers  the  power  to  fulfill 
aspiration.  The  rest  of  the  one  is  the 
rest  of  death,  that  of  the  other  is  the  rest 
of  triumphant  life. 

III.  I  have  said  that  this  power  to  real- 
ize ideals  which  Christianity  confers  upon 
its  adherents  is  not  really  new,  but  only 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  119 

a  new  realization  of  a  power  which  is 
eternal ;  but  this  is  equally  true  of  that 
increased  endowment  which  knowledge 
confers  in  the  physical  realm.  Elec- 
tricity is  not  a  new  force  now  first  cre- 
ated, but  an  old  force  now  first  discovered 
or  revealed.  As  the  nature  of  electricity 
is  revealed  to  us  it  becomes  a  practical 
power  in  our  hands  to  be  employed  by 
us.  Thus  revelation  or  discovery,1  while 
it  does  not  add  to  the  powers  in  the 
universe,  increases  our  capacity  to  use 
them.  The  powers  in  the  universe  re- 
main unaltered,  but  our  power  is  in- 
creased. 

In  the  moral  realm  the  greatest  of  all 
powers  is  that  of  a  great  personality — 
that  which  one  masterful  character  exer- 
cises over  another  character.  This  is  the 
power  of  the  great  orator,  who  sways  an 
audience  as  he  will,  not  by  acquired  arts 
of  rhetoric  or  elocution — these  are  only 

1  Synonymous  words  :    to  discover  is  to  uncover,  to 
reveal  is  to  unveil. 


120  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

his  instruments — but  by  the  personal 
character  which  employs  them  and  is 
communicated  by  them.  It  is  this  which 
makes  him  what  we  call — concealing  our 
ignorance  by  the  meaningless  word — a 
magnetic  speaker.  This  is  the  secret  of 
the  great  musician.  More  than  the 
flute-like  voice  of  the  singer,  more  than 
the  trained  fingers  of  the  violinist  or  the 
pianist,  is  the  man  or  woman  who  is  in- 
terpreted by  voice  or  instrument.  If 
this  character  is  wanting,  we  may  admire 
the  technique,  but  go  away  untouched, 
saying,  "  But  he  had  no  soul.'  This  is 
the  power  of  the  great  general — the  Little 
Corporal  seizing  the  flag  at  the  bridge  of 
Lodi,  and  by  his  mere  presence  convert- 
ing his  hesitating  soldiers  into  an  irre- 
sistible torrent  of  brave  men ;  General 
Sheridan  meeting  his  panic-stricken  sol- 
diers fleeing  from  the  field  in  the  Shenan- 
doah Valley,  calling  to  them,  "  Turn, 
boys,  turn  !  we  are  going  the  other  way,' 
and,    by    the    power   of    his    infectious 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  121 

courage,  converting  their  panic  into  an 
enthusiasm  of  courage,  and  the  rout  into  a 
victory.  This  is  the  secret  of  the  mother's 
power.  She  goes  down  in  solemn  joy 
to  that  door  which  swings  both  ways  on 
its  hinges,  not  knowing  whether  she  will 
go  out  into  the  unknown,  or  out  of  the 
unknown  a  new  life  will  come  to  her; 
she  offers  her  life  in  that  very  hour  in 
which  she  welcomes  a  new  life  to  her 
keeping;  all  her  motherhood  is  one  life- 
long offering,  a  transmission  of  her  life 
to  the  child,  whom  she  endows  with 
courage,  truth,  purity,  love,  not  by  her 
skilled  teaching,  but  by  the  impartation 
of  herself;  not  by  what  she  says,  nor  yet 
by  what  she  does,  but  by  what  she  is. 

Christianity,  recognizing  this  power  of 
a  great  personality,  brings  to  bear  upon 
humanity  the  personality  of  God.  It 
differs  somewhat  from  other  world-reli- 
gions in  the  ideals  of  human  life  and 
character  which  it  presents.  Yet  in  the 
main  these  agree ;  for  the  aspirations  of 


122  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

humanity  are  ever  alike  in  their  trend, 
though  not  in  their  clearness  and  purity. 
Christianity  differs  more  from  other 
world-religions  in  its  doctrine  of  God. 
Confucianism  deifies  its  ancestors,  Bud- 
dhism deifies  its  dreams,  Mohammedan- 
ism deifies  its  conscience  and  its  self-will ; 
Christianity  alone  deifies  love.  But  the 
distinctive  characteristic  of  Christianity 
lies,  not  in  its  ideals — that  is,  its  laws ; 
not  in  its  conception  of  God — that  is, 
in  its  theology;  but  in  this,  that  it  so 
brings  God  down  to  earth,  so  interprets 
him  an  Immanuel,  a  God  with  us,  that  it 
discovers  or  reveals  to  man  this  eternal 
but  before  unknown  power,  the  power  of 
a  divine  personality  living  among  men, 
brooding  them,  and  by  direct  personal 
influence  transforming  them.  God's 
silent  voice  transcends  the  magnetism  of 
all  world-orators;  his  inspiring  presence 
summons  to  a  courage  unparalleled  on 
any  field  of  battle;  his  brooding  care  is 
more  life-giving  than  that  of  any  mother. 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  123 

This  is,  to  us  who  follow  Christ  and 
believe  in  him,  the  meaning  of  the  Incar- 
nation. In  vain  our  imagination  endeav- 
ors to  realize  an  "  Infinite  and  Eternal 
Energy,"  or  a  "  Power  not  ourselves 
that  makes  for  righteousness.'  But  in 
Christ  we  see  God  personified ;  brought 
within  our  vision ;  so  dwelling  among  us 
that  his  personality  touches  ours  and  we 
answer  to  the  contact.  This  is  what  we 
mean  by  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
He  dwells  with  us  and  is  in  us,  his  Spirit 
so  mingling  with  our  spirit  that  all  our 
life  is  reinforced  by  his  presence,  and 
what  before  was  impossible  becomes  easy. 
This  is  what  we  mean  by  atonement. 
He  is  at  one  with  us  and  we  are  at  one 
with  him,  so  that  his  life  flows  into  us 
and  we  live  by  him.  This  is  what  the 
Psalmist  means  when  he  says,  "  By  my 
God  I  have  run  through  a  troop,  and  by 
my  God  I  have  leaped  over  a  wall.' 
This  is  what  Paul  means  when  he  says, 
"  I   can  do  all  things  through  him  that 


i24  THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS 

strengtheneth  me.'  This  is  what  he 
means  by  saying  that  we  are  heirs  of  God 
and  joint  heirs  with  Jesus  Christ.  We 
inherit  God  himself,  become  partakers  of 
the  divine  nature,  like  Christ  are  sons  of 
God,  our  life  is  begotten  of  God  and 
proceeds  from  him.  This  is  what  he 
means  by  saying  that  our  righteousness 
is  of  God  by  faith ;  as  the  listener  enters 
into  sympathy  with  the  orator,  the  sol- 
dier with  the  hero,  the  child  with  the 
mother,  so  we  enter  into  sympathy  with 
God — that  is  faith.  As  life  passes  from 
orator  to  audience,  from  hero  to  soldier, 
from  mother  to  child,  so  it  passes  from 
God  to  the  human  soul — that  is  grace. 
And  this  faith  which  receives  and  this 
grace  which  gives  find,  possibly  ana- 
logies, certainly  no  parallel,  in  any  other 
world-religion. 

To  sum  all  up:  the  distinctive  charac- 
teristic of  Christianity  is  Christ;  by 
Christ  God  is  brought  to  earth,  made 
visible,   tangible,  comprehensible  to  us; 


THE    WORLD'S  RELIGIONS  125 

by  this  contact  the  divine  personality 
comes  in  touch  with  us,  reinforces  our 
spiritual  nature,  endows  us  with  new 
power,  inspires,  recreates,  transforms; 
thus  empowered,  we  are  able  to  translate 
our  before  impossible  ideals  into  realities, 
our  dreams  into  deeds,  our  aspirations 
into  achievements. 


PARABLES 

FOR    SCHOOL   AND    HOME 

By 

WENDELL  P.  GARRISON 

Author  of  "What  Mr.  Darwin  Saw,"  etc.,  etc. 

With   21   Engravings  on   Wood   done    Expressly    for    the 

Volume  by  Gustav  Kruell. 

12mo,  cloth,  ornamental,  $1.25 

"  How  to  make  men  think  and  how  to  help  men  think  is  a 
problem  which  slowly  approaches  solution.  Progress  has  gone 
so  far  that  it  has  substituted  children  for  men  in  the  double 
question  adduced,  and  is  now  studying  the  various  experiments 
of  pedagogues  and  psychologists.  One  of  these  is  Wendell  P. 
Garrison,  and  his  experiment  is  shown  in  a  pretty  volume,  en- 
titled 'Parables  for  School  and  Home.1  The  author  is  a  man 
of  wide  culture  who  has  a  healthful  appreciation  of  humor, 
poetry,  art,  and  music.  He  loves  children,  and  he  believes 
that  in  their  unfolding  they  can  be  helped  to  think,  and  at  the 
same  time  develop  morally. 

The  so-called  'Parables'  are  delightful  fifteen-minute 
chats.  .  .  •  They  are  the  conversations  of  a  gentleman 
with  his  sons  and  daughters.  The  book  is  handsomely  gotten 
up;  exquisite  illustrations  by  Gustav  Kruell  render  it  an 
artistic  as  well  as  a  literary  treasure.  It  may  be  highly  recom- 
mended to  parents,  guardians,  and  teachers  wherever  English 
is  spoken."—  Mail  and  Express,  New  York. 


LONGMANS,    GREEN,    &   CO. 

91-93  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York 


JESUS  THE  MESSIAH 

By 

ALFRED  EDERSHEIMt  M.A. 

Some  time  Grinfield  lecturer  on  the  Septuagint 
in  the  University  of  Oxford 

An  abridged  edition  of  The  Life  and  Times  of  Jesus  the 
Messiah,  with   preface   by   Prof.  W.    Sanday,  of  Oxford 

Small  8vo,  659  pages,  $1.00 

This  edition  has  been  carefully  abridged  from  the  well- 
known  two-volume  work  of  Dr.  Edersheim.  While  the 
larger  wrork  will  remain,  as  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Howard 
Crosby,  D.D.,  has  said  of  it,  ''an  indispensable  encyclopaedia 
for  a  well-equipped  minister,"  the  smaller  work  is  intended 
to  be  used  by  Sunday-school  scholars  and  teachers  and  by 
all  who  desire  a  book  for  reading  rather  than  for  reference. 

The  following  are  some  testimonials  to  the  parent  work, 
from  prominent  clergymen: 

REV.  LYMAN  ABBOTT,  D.D. 

"The  best  of  all  the  published  lives  of  Christ.'1 

REV.  HERRICK  JOHNSON,  D.D.,  Chicago. 
"A  vivid,  striking,  unique  and  intensely  interesting  book.'' 

PROF.  SHAILER  MATTHEWS,  University  of  Chicago. 

"There  is  no  work  in  English,  upon  this  subject,  to  be 
classed  with  this  of  Edersheim." 

REV.  JOHN  HALL,  D.D.,  New  York. 
"  It  is  scholarly,  suggestive  and  valuable.     It  is  specially 
useful  in  throwing  light  upon  the  times  of  the  Saviour's  life  on 
earth." 

REV.  C.  H.  PARKHURST,  D.D.,  New  York. 

"  There  is  no  biography  of  Christ,  humanly  composed,  that 
vies  with  Edersheim's." 

LONGMANS,   GREEN,    &   CO. 

91-93  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York 


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